Body Composition Monitoring in Valvular Heart Disease: Association With Clinical Status and Impact on Prognosis

Volume overload and abnormal fluid distribution are hallmarks in the syndromes of acute and chronic heart failure (HF) as well as valvular heart disease (VHD). Most patients, at some point in their disease progression, present acutely to an emergency department, where they will typically show symptoms of progressive volume overload.

Most patients respond well to standard diuretic therapy, usually at the costs of impaired renal function. Based on the assumption that clinically overt fluid overload is the result of progressive fluid accumulation, current European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association (ACCF/AHA) guidelines recommend a correction of volume status using diuretics, to reduce the total fluid volume. However there is no consensus on how to define fluid overload quantitavely.

In patients undergoing dialysis, bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy / body composition monitoring (BCM) is a well established tool to assess fluid status, allowing quantitative measurement.

This study aims to

1. Establish a database reflecting the fluid status assessed by BCM of patients presenting with valvular heart disease according to current guidelines
2. Monitor fluid status assessed by BCM during increased diuretic treatment in patients presenting with cardiac decompensation due to valvular heart disease
3. Assess the association between severity of valvular heart disease assessed by echocardiography and/or cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, fluid status assessed by BCM, and clinical as well as laboratory parameters assessed during clinical routine
4. Assess the relationship between fluid status assessed by BCM and cardiovascular outcome