Influence of drug adherence and medical care on heart failure outcome in the primary care setting in Austria.

Purpose: Guideline-recommended therapy has been proven beneficial in heart failure (HF), but general implementation remains poor. The aim of this study was to evaluate the adherence to drug therapy, quality of primary non-drug medical care (NDMC) and its impact on HF outcome.

Methods: From 13 Austrian health insurance funds, we identified 36 829 patients (77.

Association of endostatin with mortality in patients with chronic heart failure.

Background: Experimental data imply that in decompensated heart failure (HF), the anti-angiogenic factor endostatin is increased. This study aimed to investigate whether the angiogenesis inhibitor endostatin is related to the risk of all-cause mortality in a prospective cohort study of chronic HF patients.

Methods: In this prospective observational cohort study, endostatin serum concentrations were determined in patients with chronic HF.