Background Recent evidence showed that new‐onset (de‐novo) acute heart failure (AHF) is a distinct type of AHF. However, the prognostic implication of gender on these patients remains unclear. Aims We aimed to investigate the impact of gender on both short and long‐term mortality outcomes after hospitalisation for de‐novo AHF. Methods We analysed the data of 721 patients with de‐novo AHF, who were enrolled in the HF survey in Israel between March and April 2003 and were followed until December 2014. Results Fifty‐four percent (N = 387) of the patients were men. In comparison to women, men patients were more likely to be younger, smokers, and with ischemic HF aetiology. At 30 days, mortality rates were higher in women (12% vs 7%, P = .013). Survival analysis showed that at 1 and 10 years the all‐cause mortality rates were significantly higher in women (28% vs 17%, and 78% vs 67%, 1 and 10 years, P < .001, respectively). Consistently, multivariable analysis showed that women had an independently 82% and 24% higher mortality risk at 1 and 10 years, respectively, (1‐year hazard ratio = 1.82; 95% confidence interval = 1.07 to 3.11, P = .03; 10‐year hazard ratio = 1.24; 95% confidence interval = 1.03 to 1.48, P = .02). Conclusions Amongst patients with de‐novo AHF, women had higher mortality rates compared with men. The observed gender‐related differences in de‐novo AHF patients highlight the need for further and deeper research in this field.

Background The purpose of this article is to evaluate the association of voice signal analysis with adverse outcome among patients with congestive heart failure ( CHF ). Methods and Results The study cohort included 10 583 patients who were registered to a call center of patients who had chronic conditions including CHF in Israel between 2013 and 2018. A total of 223 acoustic features were extracted from 20 s of speech for each patient. A biomarker was developed based on a training cohort of non‐ CHF patients (N=8316). The biomarker was tested on a mutually exclusive CHF study cohort (N=2267) and was evaluated as a continuous and ordinal (4 quartiles) variable. Median age of the CHF study population was 77 (interquartile range 68–83) and 63% were men. During a median follow‐up of 20 months (interquartile range 9–34), 824 (36%) patients died. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed higher cumulative probability of death with increasing quartiles (23%, 29%, 38%, and 54%; P <0.001). Survival analysis with adjustment to known predictors of poor survival demonstrated that each SD increase in the biomarker was associated with a significant 32% increased risk of death during follow‐up (95% CI, 1.24–1.41, P <0.001) and that compared with the lowest quartile, patients in the highest quartile were 96% more likely to die (95% CI , 1.59–2.42, P <0.001). The model consistently demonstrated an independent association of the biomarker with hospitalizations during follow‐up ( P <0.001). Conclusions Noninvasive vocal biomarker is associated with adverse outcome among CHF patients, suggesting a possible role for voice analysis in telemedicine and CHF patient care.

Introduction There are limited contemporary data regarding the association between improvement in cardiovascular fitness in heart failure patients who participate in a cardiac rehabilitation programme and the risk of subsequent hospitalisations. Methods The study population comprised 421 patients with heart failure who participated in our cardiac rehabilitation programme between the years 2009 and 2016. All were evaluated by a standard exercise stress test before initiation, and underwent a second exercise stress test on completion of 3 ± 1 months of training. Participants were dichotomised by fitness level at baseline, according to the percentage of predicted age and sex norms achieved. Each group was further divided according to its degree of functional improvement, between the baseline and the follow-up exercise stress test. Major improvement was defined as improvement above the median value in each group. The combined primary endpoint was cardiac hospitalisation or all-cause mortality. Results A total of 211 (50%) patients had low baseline fitness (<73% (median)) for age and sex-predicted metabolic equivalents of task value. Compared to patients with higher fitness, those with a low baseline fitness were more commonly smokers, had diabetes and were obese ( P < 0.05 for all). Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that, independent of baseline capacity, an improvement of 5% of predicted fitness was associated with a corresponding 10% reduced risk of cardiac hospitalisation or all-cause mortality ( P < 0.001). Conclusion In heart failure patients participating in a cardiac rehabilitation programme, improved cardiovascular fitness is associated with reduced mortality or cardiac hospitalisation risk during long-term follow-up, independent of baseline fitness.