Impact of sex-specific target dose in chronic heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction.

Aims: A recent study suggested that women with heart failure and heart failure reduced ejection fraction might hypothetically need lower doses of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers ( = renin-angiotensin-system inhibitors) and β-blockers than men to achieve the best outcome. We assessed the current medical treatment of heart failure reduced ejection fraction in men and women in a large contemporary cohort and address the hypothetical impact of changing treatment levels in women.

Methods: This analysis is part of a large contemporary quality of heart failure care project which includes 5320 (64%) men and 3003 (36%) women with heart failure reduced ejection fraction.

Chest pain in the emergency room: a multicenter validation of the HEART Score.

Objective: Decision-making in chest pain patients is hampered by poor diagnostic power of patient's history, electrocardiogram, age, risk factors, and troponin. Each of these findings may be qualified with 0, 1, or 2 points. Together they compose the HEART score.