Why the study?
Natriuretic peptide uptake varies in emergency departments across Europe, prompting an evaluation of whether an educational campaign would increase adoption rates in Western Balkan countries.
Does implementing an educational campaign and providing point-of-care testing (P4L-ED initiative) increase natriuretic peptide testing rates upon admission in adult patients presenting to the emergency department with dyspnea in Western Balkan countries?
Does implementing an educational campaign and providing point-of-care testing (P4L-ED initiative) increase natriuretic peptide testing rates upon admission in adult patients presenting to the emergency department with dyspnea in Western Balkan countries?
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Implementing a structured educational programme and providing point-of-care testing equipment significantly increased natriuretic peptide and echocardiography utilization for patients presenting with dyspnea in Western Balkan emergency departments, improving heart failure diagnosis and use of diuretics and SGLT2 inhibitors.
AIMS: Natriuretic peptide (NP) uptake varies in Emergency Departments (EDs) across Europe. The 'Peptide for Life' (P4L) initiative, led by Heart Failure Association, aims to enhance NP utilization for early diagnosis of heart failure (HF). We tested the hypothesis that implementing an educational campaign in Western Balkan countries would significantly increase NP adoption rates in the ED. METHODS AND RESULTS: This registry examined NP adoption before and after implementing the P4L-ED study across 10 centres in five countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. A train-the-trainer programme was implemented to enhance awareness of NP testing in the ED, and centres without access received point-of-care instruments. Differences in NP testing between the pre-P4L-ED and post-P4L-ED phases were evaluated. A total of 2519 patients were enrolled in the study: 1224 (48.6%) in the pre-P4L-ED phase and 1295 (51.4%) in the post-P4L-ED phase. NP testing was performed in the ED on 684 patients (55.9%) during the pre-P4L-ED phase and on 1039 patients (80.3%) during the post-P4L-ED phase, indicating a significant absolute difference of 24.4% (95% CI: 20.8% to 27.9%, P < 0.001). The use of both NPs and echocardiography significantly increased from 37.7% in the pre-P4L-ED phase to 61.3% in the post-P4L-ED phase. There was an increased prescription of diuretics and SGLT2 inhibitors during the post-P4L-ED phase. CONCLUSIONS: By increasing awareness and providing resources, the utilization of NPs increased in the ED, leading to improved diagnostic accuracy and enhanced patient care.
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Bayés‐Genís et al. (2023) studied this question.
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