Why the study?
Does monitoring weight gain in addition to bilateral leg edema help identify clinically relevant worsening in patients with established mild-to-moderate heart failure?
Does monitoring weight gain in addition to bilateral leg edema help identify clinically relevant worsening in patients with established mild-to-moderate heart failure?
In patients with mild-to-moderate heart failure, bilateral leg edema alone is often clinically insignificant, but concurrent weight gain indicates a clinically relevant sign requiring treatment adjustment to prevent worsening heart failure.
Sole leg edema without weight gain may be insignificant in mild-to-moderate HF; leaves open whether combined monitoring improves decompensation detection.
During follow-up of mild-to-moderate HF patients, sole leg edema appeared around 30% of the leg edema events, which is considered clinically insignificant. Additional checking for weight gain could be useful for determining whether this sign is a clinically relevant HF-related sign. The appearance of these both signs during follow-up of established HF patients should be intentionally watched or treated by extra diuretics and/or drug adjustment to prevent worsening of HF.
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Hajime Kataoka (2015) studied this question.
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