Evaluation of VEXUS Score of Patients With Heart Failure in the Intensive Care Unit.

Heart failure is a syndrome that progresses with symptoms and signs caused by cardiac dysfunction and results in a shortened life expectancy (1). Acute heart failure resulting in hospitalization is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. With the increase in the severity of the disease and rapid advances in the treatment of heart failure, these patients are frequently hospitalized and monitored in intensive care. (2) Five years after diagnosis, mortality can be up to 67%. Additionally, it is known that patients with heart failure are hospitalized on average once a year after diagnosis. (3) In a multicenter study, it constituted 14% of 3000 cardiac patients admitted to intensive care units. Additionally, due to longer ICU stays, these patients accounted for 33% of total inpatient days. An increasing number of heart failure patients require intensive care due to respiratory failure, regardless of left ventricular ejection fraction. Heart failure accounts for approximately one-third of patient days in intensive care units, and this burden is increasing. This shows that attention should be paid to the quality of care for patients requiring critical care. (2) Multidisciplinary programs have been implemented to deal with the high prevalence. However, the optimal follow-up frequency is unknown. Therefore, some tools are needed to improve patient prognosis (3). Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a biomarker whose values in both urine and plasma have been associated with acute kidney injury (AKI). Although NGAL is an early specific biomarker for AKI, it has not yet come into routine use, but is frequently used in clinical and experimental studies (4). Venous load ultrasonography score (VExUS) is a new systemic congestion scoring method based on inferior vena cava dilation and pulsed wave Doppler (PW-Doppler) morphology of the hepatic, portal and renal veins. It has been proposed as a score to assess systemic congestion.