Background Acute heart failure ( AHF ) is a heterogeneous condition, and its characteristics and management patterns differ by region. Furthermore, limited evidence is available on AHF outside of Western countries. A project by the National Consortium of Acute Heart Failure Registries was designed to evaluate the trends over time in patient backgrounds, in-hospital management patterns, and long-term outcomes of patients with AHF over 9 years in Japan. Methods and Results Between 2007 and 2015, registry data for patients with AHF were collected from 3 large-scale quality AHF registries ( ATTEND / WET - HF / REALITY - AHF ). Predefined end points were trends over time in age, sex, and clinical outcomes, including short- and long-term mortality and readmission for heart failure. The final data set consisted of 9075 patients with AHF . No significant differences in patient backgrounds and laboratory findings (eg, anemia or renal function) were observed, with the exception of patient age; mean age became substantially higher over 9 years (71.6-77.0 years; P for trend, <0.001). On the contrary, length of hospital stay became shorter (mean, 26-16 days). These changes were not associated with in-hospital mortality (4.7-7.5%) or 30-day heart failure readmission rate (4.8-5.4%), as well as 1-year mortality and heart failure readmission rate (20.1-23.3% and 23.6-26.2%, respectively). Conclusions Length of hospital stay in patients with AHF shortened over the 9-year period despite the increasing age of the patients. However, short- and long-term outcomes do not seem to be affected; continuous efforts to monitor clinical outcomes in patients with AHF are needed.
Keywords: Japan; acute heart failure; mortality; readmission; time trend.