Clinical usefulness of the HFA-PEFF diagnostic scoring system in identifying late elderly heart failure with preserved ejection fraction patients

Abstract

Background: Diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) remains challenging in elderly. This study investigated the diagnostic ability of the HFA-PEFF scoring system in elderly patients (>75 years of age). Methods and Results: This study enrolled 286 subjects aged >75 years (130 men; mean [± SD] age 81.5±5.1 years): 95 healthy controls, 98 with hypertension (HT), and 93 with HFpEF. The HFA-PEFF score was calculated as a sum of points in functional, morphological, and biomarker domains. In the HFpEF group, 84%, 84%, and 70% of subjects met the major functional, morphological, and biomarker criteria for HFpEF, respectively. Thus, 73 subjects with HFpEF (78%) were diagnosed as having HFpEF using the HFA-PEFF scoring system. In contrast, among the healthy controls and subjects with HT, 52% and 72%, respectively, met the major functional criteria for HFpEF, 28% and 53%, respectively, met the morphological criteria, and 0% and 24%, respectively, met the biomarker criteria. As such, 32 subjects with HT (33%) were diagnosed with HFpEF. Even in the healthy control group, 72% were classified as having an intermediate probability of HFpEF, and 3 were diagnosed with HFpEF. Conclusions: In the late elderly, the HFA-PEFF scoring system diagnosed subjects with HFpEF precisely. In addition, this scoring system may be able to detect early stage HFpEF in the subclinical population.