Home-based screening for heart failure (U-SCREEN-HF)
Heart failure is a common disease that becomes more common with age. Heart failure can cause great suffering and the prognosis is worse than for many cancers. Unfortunately, heart failure is underdiagnosed and undertreated. We are conducting a unique study to investigate whether a stepwise multimodal home-based screening of people with symptoms of heart failure leads to earlier diagnosis of heart failure, and consequently earlier treatment, better quality of life and better prognosis.
Project description
It is estimated that half of those with heart failure have not yet been diagnosed or treated for heart failure. As heart failure has multiple symptoms, the potential for symptom-driven screening for undiagnosed heart failure should be good. Using digital tools to capture symptoms in the general population that may indicate heart failure, people with a high likelihood of heart failure will be randomised to either receive or not receive a home-delivered capillary blood self-sampling device, a finger prick. The subjects' submitted blood spots will then be analysed for the heart failure marker NTproBNP, and those with elevated levels will be invited to the study clinic for investigations, including an artificial intelligence-powered ultrasound of the heart, which will confirm or rule out the diagnosis of heart failure.
All participants will be followed using digital questionnaires on heart failure symptoms and quality of life, and in healthcare databases, to evaluate whether screening affected heart failure diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.
The study results will benefit all stakeholders involved in the care of patients with heart failure (physicians, healthcare systems, clinical guidelines, policy makers, payers, patient organisations), providing the evidence base needed to change clinical practice for a more effective diagnosis of heart failure.