Heart failure hospitalisations are common, but some are potentially preventable through early detection and timely optimisation of pharmacotherapies, most often diuretic titration.
Peripheral oedema is a cardinal feature of heart failure decompensation, though not all patients seek medical attention at this time. The detection of this increase in volume may therefore be a useful tool in preventing heart failure decompensation and hospitalisation.
This study will evaluate a completely automated (no contact) device which captures volumes of the patient's feet in their home, with the ultimate aim of this data being accessible to the heart failure team. However for the purpose of this study, the clinical team will be blinded to the data in order to be able to assess the temporal relationship (and time) between an alert being generated by the device and a hospital admission, or medication change. However if for example a patient fall is detected by the device, a designated Manchester clinician can be contacted to act.
Peripheral oedema is a cardinal feature of heart failure decompensation, though not all patients seek medical attention at this time. The detection of this increase in volume may therefore be a useful tool in preventing heart failure decompensation and hospitalisation.
In WS1 of the current study, the investigators will specifically be looking at whether the use of the Heartfelt Technology can be used to support the remote monitoring of clinical response to home-based intravenous(IV) diuretic interventions as part of an admission avoidance strategy. Our hypothesis is that the Heartfelt technology coupled with this home intervention could provide clinically useful objective measurement of peripheral oedema, which could be used by the heart failure team to titrate the diuretics and guide duration of treatment.
This pilot study will examine change in longitudinal volumes measured by the device and home IV diuretic dosage as well as daily clinical observations. This will help confirm the validity of the readings provided by the device.
Once the home-based intravenous(IV) diuretic intervention is complete, patients will continue to be monitored for a total of 3 months, to observe relative stability or detect further clinically significant decompensations.
In WS2 of the current study, the investigators will be looking at whether Heartfelt alert can offer a window of opportunity in which to perform a theoretical clinical intervention. In order to establish the lead time, recently discharged patients, a population known to be at high risk of re-admission, will be provided with the Heartfelt device and a post-hoc analysis of the data will be performed to establish the number of days between the alert being raised by the Heartfelt device and the date of diagnosis of decompensation +/- hospital admission where this occurs.
This study will be a small-scale pilot to collect information which will support the set-up of a larger study. The pilot will be purely observational as the investigators will not intervene based on the Heartfelt readings. The post-hoc analysis will be undertaken to inform the design of the larger study. As soon as a patient has had the device disconnected, their data can be reviewed for analysis as their participation in the study is completed at that point. This may allow for preliminary analysis to be completed part way through the wider study.
During the pilot the investigators will also collect acceptability ratings from patients and carers.
Research in Heart failure has been reported to often recruit non representative patient groups (Younger patients generally and fewer women and BAME patients than expected for example). So the investigators plan to compare data from the study participants to the ones of the overall HF population seen at the hospital (already recorded as part of the NICOR records). The demographic that the investigators plan to compare are: deprivation level (from postcode), age, sex and ethnicity.
