Over 6 million Americans suffer from heart failure, one of the most prevalent and deadly diseases. High 30-day readmission and mortality rates have persisted despite advances in care. Clinical guidelines suggest blood volume assessment and clinical management to euvolemia or normal blood volume, but standard methods of blood volume diagnosis have been shown to be unreliable. FDA-cleared Blood volume analysis (BVA) has been used to quantify otherwise undiagnosed blood volume derangements in heart failure and other indications. Also, care guided by BVA has been demonstrated to improve inpatient heart failure readmission and mortality. A similar analysis has not previously been performed immediately following hospital discharge, though this period is understood to be challenging due to high variability of patient status, physiology, and compliance.~This is a prospective, single-center, observational open-label study. The primary objective is to quantify changes to plasma volume and red blood cell volume over a 12 week period post-discharge.
In patients discharged following heart failure treatment, the consistency of blood volume status and components over time is unknown. The primary objective is to describe the rate of change, if any, of the plasma volume and red blood cell volume following hospitalization and discharge of patients with heart failure.