Asian Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure(ASIAN-HF) Prospective Observational Study

Heart failure (HF) is a major public health problem worldwide. As the final common pathway of a myriad of heart diseases, HF burden increases with increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disease in a community, as patients survive their acute cardiac conditions (such as heart attacks) and progress to chronic HF. Further, HF is a debilitating and deadly condition with high rehospitalization rates and dismal survival rates comparable to most cancers. In Singapore alone, the age-adjusted HF admission rate rose by ~40% over the last decade,1 making HF the commonest cardiac cause of hospitalization (representing ~24% of all cardiac admissions), and the 5-year survival rate in patients with HF is only 32%. These alarming statistics reflect the global shift in cardiovascular disease burden to developing countries in Asia. In fact, the World Health Organization has projected that the largest increases in cardiovascular disease worldwide are occurring in Asia, due to rapidly increasing rates of smoking, obesity, dyslipidemia and diabetes among Asians. Thus the burden of HF is expected to reach epidemic proportions in Asia. Yet in sharp contrast to the wealth of data regarding HF in Western nations, epidemiologic data are scarce in Asian patients with HF.

The study will involve 46 top medical centers across 11 Asian regions (Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Singapore). Site selection targeted a mix of centers covering a broad spectrum of medical, cardiology and HF specialty units regularly admitting patients with acute HF and following outpatients with chronic HF, constituting a novel network of Asian centers of cardiovascular expertise.

Data collection will include demographic variables, clinical symptoms, functional status, date of HF diagnosis and prior cardiovascular investigations, clinical risk factors, lifestyle factors, socioeconomic status, and survey of cultural beliefs, health practices and attitudes towards device therapy. Center-level characteristics (caseload, referral pattern, specialization, infrastructure) will also be obtained. Patients will undergo standard 12-lead electrocardiography and transthoracic echocardiography at baseline, and followed over 3 years for outcomes of death or hospitalization. Each outcome event and its cause will be adjudicated by a central committee using pre-specified criteria.