Recommendations for Serial Clinical Assessment of Patients Presenting With Heart Failure
CLASS I
(1) Assessment should be made at each visit of the ability of a patient with HF to perform routine and desired activities of daily living.
(2) Assessment should be made at each visit of the volume status and weight of a patient with HF.
(3) Careful history of current use of alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, “alternative therapies,” and chemotherapy drugs, as well as diet and sodium intake, should be obtained at each visit of a patient with HF.
CLASS IIa
(1) Repeat measurement of EF and the severity of structural remodeling can be useful to provide information in patients with HF who have had a change in clinical status or who have experienced or recovered from a clinical event or received treatment that might have had a significant effect on cardiac function.
CLASS IIb
(1) The value of serial measurements of BNP to guide therapy for patients with HF is not well established.
JACC. 2009; 53; e1-e90