• Carlo Mario Lombardi, João Pedro Ferreira, Valentina Carubelli, Stefan D Anker, John G Cleland, Kenneth Dickstein, Gerasimos Filippatos, Chim C Lang, Leong L Ng, Piotr Ponikowski, Nilesh J Samani, Dirk J van Veldhuisen, Faiez Zannad, Adriaan Voors, and Marco Metra.
• Cardiology, Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences, and Public Health, Cardio-Thoracic Department, University of Brescia, Civil Hospitals, Brescia, Italy. lombardi.carlo@alice.it.
• Clin Res Cardiol. 2020 Aug 1; 109 (8): 967-977.

BackgroundGeographical differences may impact the treatment of heart failure (HF) and the results of clinical trials. We have investigated the differences between geographical areas across Europe in the BIOSTAT-CHF program.MethodsPatients with worsening HF enrolled in BIOSTAT-CHF were subdivided, according to the European geographical areas, into those from Northern countries (The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK), Central countries (Germany, Poland, Serbia, Slovenia), and Mediterranean countries (France, Greece, Italy). Patients were compared for baseline characteristics, treatment, and outcomes. The primary endpoint was a composite of all-cause mortality or HF hospitalization.ResultsAmong 2516 patients enrolled in BIOSTAT-CHF, 814 (32.3%) were from Northern European centers, 816 (32.4%) from Central European centers, and 886 (35.2%) from Mediterranean centers. Patients from Northern European centers were older, had more severe signs and symptoms of HF, and with lower incidence of non-cardiac comorbidities such as chronic kidney dysfunction, diabetes and, hypertension, compared to those from the Central and Mediterranean centers. Patients receiving ≥ 50% of the target dose of both ACE-I/ARB after the up-titration phase were higher in the Northern European centers compared with the other regions (60% versus 58.7% in the Central European centers and 46.5% in the Mediterranean ones; p < 0.001). The primary endpoint occurred at a higher rate in the Northern centers (44.3% versus 37.4% in central centers and 39.6% in Mediterranean centers; p = 0.014), this difference became non-significant after the adjustment for important confounders. Importantly, treatment up-titration reduced the event rates regardless of the geographical region (p for interaction > 0.05).ConclusionThe BIOSTAT-CHF study showed significant differences in the clinical features, treatment and prognosis in European patients with HF. Patients from the Mediterranean centers less often had the HF treatments up-titrated; however, the treatment up-titration benefited patients irrespective of their geographical region and should be part of the "default" clinical practice.

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