Journal of cardiac failure
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Acute dyspnea poses a diagnostic challenge for physicians, and the current methods in differentiating cardiac from non-cardiac causes have been limited to date. Recently, the brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) rapid test has been validated in the emergency room. Nevertheless, the early accumulation of fluid in the interstitial space in the body and in the lungs, which characterizes patients with ADHF, is well estimated by BIA. We investigate whether bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) can serve as a noninvasive diagnostic tool in the differential diagnosis of acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Our data suggest that Seg and WB BIA are a useful, simple, rapid, and noninvasive diagnostic adjunct in the early diagnosis of dyspnea from ADHF.