Rationale and Design of a Prospective, Multicenter, Observational Study Evaluating Iron Deficiency in Patients Hospitalized for Heart Failure (FERIC-RO)

Abstract

Introduction: Several landmark studies, which enrolled heart failure (HF) patients who were ambulatory at the time of inclusion, identified iron deficiency (ID) as an important therapeutic target: intravenous iron administration with ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) improves morbidity, exercise capacity, and quality of life in patients with HF and reduced EF (HFrEF). However, there is still limited knowledge about ID prevalence during hospitalization for Worsening Chronic HF (WCHF) and about the relationship between ID during hospitalization and post-discharge outcomes. Although previous studies documented ID as an independent risk factor for poor outcomes in HFrEF, its prognostic significance in HF patients with EF>40% remains unclear.

Keywords

• heart failure
• iron deficiency
• clinical studies