Rationale and design of the preserved versus reduced ejection fraction biomarker registry and precision medicine database for ambulatory patients with heart failure (PREFER-HF) study.

Introduction: Patients with heart failure (HF) are classically categorised by left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Efforts to predict outcomes and response to specific therapy among LVEF-based groups may be suboptimal, in part due to the underlying heterogeneity within clinical HF phenotypes. A multidimensional characterisation of ambulatory patients with and without HF across LVEF groups is needed to better understand and manage patients with HF in a more precise manner.
Methods and Analysis: To date, the first cohort of 1313 out of total planned 3000 patients with and without HF has been enroled in this single-centre, longitudinal observational cohort study. Baseline and 1-year follow-up blood samples and clinical characteristics, the presence and duration of comorbidities, serial laboratory, echocardiographic data and images and therapy information will be obtained. HF diagnosis, aetiology of disease, symptom onset and clinical outcomes at 1 and 5 years will be adjudicated by a team of clinicians. Clinical outcomes of interest include all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, all-cause hospitalisation, cardiovascular hospitalisation, HF hospitalisation, right-sided HF and acute kidney injury. Results from the Preserved versus Reduced Ejection Fraction Biomarker Registry and Precision Medicine Database for Ambulatory Patients with Heart Failure (PREFER-HF) trial will examine longitudinal clinical characteristics, proteomic, metabolomic, genomic and imaging data to better understand HF phenotypes, with the ultimate goal of improving precision medicine and clinical outcomes for patients with HF.
Ethics and Dissemination: Information gathered in this research will be published in peer-reviewed journals. Written informed consent for PREFER-HF was obtained from all participants. All study procedures were approved by the Mass General Brigham Institutional Review Board in Boston, Massachusetts and performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (Protocol Number: 2016P000339).
Trial Registration Number: PREFER-HF ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03480633.
Competing Interests: Competing interests: JLJ is a Trustee of the American College of Cardiology, has received grant support from Roche Diagnostics, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Abbott Diagnostics, consulting income from Abbott Diagnostics, Janssen, Novartis and Roche Diagnostics, and participates in clinical endpoint committees/data safety monitoring boards for Abbott, AbbVie, Amgen, Bayer and Takeda. HKG has received research grant support from Roche Diagnostics, Jana Care, Ortho Clinical, Novartis, Pfizer, Alnylam, Akcea; consulting income from Amgen, Eko, Merck, Roche Diagnostics, Radiometer, Pfizer; Stock ownership for Eko; Research payments for clinical endpoint committees from Radiometer. She has also received research payment for clinical endpoint committees from Baim Institute for Clinical Research for Abbott, Siemens and Beckman Coulter.
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