Heart failure & cardiomyopathies
Comparative value of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) scores for risk stratification in patients with unexplained dyspnoea
Authors' conclusion
HFpEF diagnostic scores reflect the structural and functional disease burden as well as clinical risk in unexplained dyspnea.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with unexplained dyspnoea undergoing combined cardiopulmonary exercise testing and echocardiography
- Participants
- 2,535 patients
- Exposure
- Intermediate and high vs low HFpEF score risk categories
- Outcome
- Clinical outcomes by HFpEF score risk category
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Each group vs low-riskHazard ratio (95% CI)P value
Intermediate-riskHFA-PEFF
2.62(1.56–4.40)
P < 0.001High-riskHFA-PEFF
5.49(2.82–10.67)
P = 0.005Intermediate-riskH₂FPEF
2.74(1.35–5.89)
P < 0.001High-riskH₂FPEF
6.21(2.86–13.5)
P < 0.001Intermediate-riskHFpEF-ABA
1.28(0.57–2.86)
P = 0.549High-riskHFpEF-ABA
2.50(1.02–6.14)
P = 0.046Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Structural remodelling and functional limitation
- Higher scores correlated with adverse ventricular and atrial remodelling, impaired exercise capacity and higher pulmonary pressures, at rest and during exercise
Score performance in subgroups
- Score performance differed, particularly in elderly, women and AF
- Adding echocardiographic parameters, particularly resting pulmonary pressure, improved HFpEF-ABA prognostic accuracy
- NT-proBNP subgroup: functional criteria and NT-proBNP remained independent predictors of outcome
Original publication
Comparative value of HFpEF scores for risk stratification in patients with unexplained dyspnoea. Eur J Heart Fail. Published 9 March 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →