MATERIAL AND METHODS
The Anemia in patients with AHF study (ANEM-AHF) is a secondary analysis of the Epidemiology of Acute Heart Failure in Emergency Departments (EAHFE) registry. The EAHFE registry was initiated in 2007 and each 2-3 years consecutively includes all the patients diagnosed with AHF attended in HEDs in the participating centers during a 2-3 month period. To date, 5 inclusion phases have been carried out (2007, 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2016) by 41 Spanish HEDs which have included a total of 13,791 patients. The methodology has been described in previous publications20,21.
The EAHFE registry is a multicenter, multipurpose, non interventional, observational study with prospective follow-up of the cohorts of patients diagnosed with AHF in HEDs. The diagnosis of AHF was made according to the criteria of the guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) prevailing at patient recruitment22, together with the Framingham criteria, and natriuretic peptides and/or echocardiography, in cases in which these were available. Prior to the inclusion period the physicians in the participating HEDs received specific training by the principal investigator of each center on the registry and the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Later, the principal investigator of each HED reviewed and revised the diagnosis of each patient included and was responsible for the final diagnosis and definitive inclusion of the patient in the study. The only exclusion criterium was having a principal diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome with ST elevation with later development of AHF.
Some of the variables were collected retrospectively with information from the clinical history as well as the anamnesis made during study in the HED. The variables related to the acute episode were collected prospectively as well as those of the follow-up which was made by telephone and consultation of the clinical histories in the hospital and primary care offices between 30 and 60 days after inclusion and at one year.