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Background and purpose: Over a quarter of patients with heart failure (HF) in Sweden are very elderly (defined as aged ≥85 years). Evidence on the demographic and clinical characteristics of these patients, and on the diagnostic procedures they receive in clinical practice, is scarce. Methods: Patients with HF were identified via electronic medical records from primary and/or secondary care in Västerbotten, linked via unique identifiers to data from the National Patient Register and Swedish Prescribed Drug Register. Local echocardiography data were used to identify patients with HF with preserved (HFpEF, ≥50%) and reduced (HFrEF, <50%) ejection fraction. Patients aged ≥18 years with ≥2 diagnoses of HF between 01/01/2010 and 31/03/2015 and an ICD-10 diagnostic code of I50 (inclusive of all granular codes), I42.0, I42.6, I42.7, I42.9, I110, I130 or I132 in any position were included. The date of the first diagnosis was the index date. ICD-10 codes were also used to identify comorbidities. A 10-year look-back period was used to exclude prevalent HF cases. Patient characteristics were assessed at index, except comorbidities (in the 5 years before index) and pre-diagnosis comedications (in the first year before index). Results: In total, 8702 patients with HF were identified; 27.7% were aged ≥85 years. Compared with patients <85 years, more patients ≥85 years were female (60.2% vs 40.6%) and fewer were overweight (BMI >25 kg/m2, 42.3% vs 63.5%). In both groups, HF was more commonly diagnosed in secondary than in primary care, but patients ≥85 years were more often diagnosed in primary care than those <85 years (31.2% vs 20.9%). Fewer patients ≥85 years than those <85 years received an echocardiogram at diagnosis (19.3% vs 42.9%); of those who did, more patients ≥85 years than <85 years had HFpEF (46.8% vs 33.4%). Patients ≥85 years had a comorbidity burden similar to those <85 years (mean number of comorbidities/patient, 2.4 vs 2.3); prevalence of at, Special Issue: Abstracts of the Heart Failure 2017 and the 4th World Congress on Acute Heart Failure, Paris, France, 29 April – 2 May 2017