A multinational registry to study the characteristics and outcomes of heart failure patients: The global congestive heart failure (G-CHF) registry

The goal of the global congestive heart failure (G-CHF) registry is to collect comparative international data on heart failure characteristics, management, and outcomes and to better understand the determinants that impact the clinical course of heart failure. Methods: G-CHF is a multicenter, prospective cohort study of adult patients with a new or prior clinical diagnosis of heart failure. We have enrolled 23,047 participants from 257 centers in 40 countries from 8 major geographic regions of the world, with recruitment ongoing. Approximately 4,000 participants will also participate in substudies to assess frailty, comorbidity, diet, barriers to care, biomarkers, and planned detailed echocardiographic analyses. Follow-up is planned for a period of 5 years. The primary outcome is cause-specific mortality. Key secondary outcomes include hospitalizations, quality of life, and major cardiovascular and noncardiovascular outcomes. A total of 31.9% of participants were enrolled as inpatients. Thus far, mean age of the cohort at baseline is 63.1 years, and 60.8% are male. Participants most commonly have heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (53.6%) followed by preserved ejection fraction (24.2%) and midrange ejection fraction (20.6%). The most common causes of heart failure are ischemic (37.8%) followed by hypertensive (20.0%), idiopathic (15.1%), and valvular disease (8.8%). Conclusion: G-CHF will provide a greater understanding of the characteristics of the global heart failure population, variations in its management, clinical outcomes, and what continues to impact morbidity and mortality in this high-risk population.