Targeting co-morbidity in heart failure: lung disease

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Targeting the link between lung disease and heart failure

  • IRAS ID

    311323

  • Contact name

    Klaus Witte

  • Contact email

    k.k.witte@leeds.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Leeds

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    4 years, 11 months, 31 days

  • Research summary

    Patients with both heart failure and chronic lung disease are at particular risk of being admitted to hospital and have a particularly poor quality of life and long term survival. It is possible that optimal treatment of both conditions at the same time would lower the risk of being readmitted and improve quality of life.

    However, diagnostic and treatment strategies are often determined by the ward to which they are admitted. For example cardiologists looking after patients admitted with heart failure might miss or suboptimally treat the lung problem.

    We want to describe how commonly heart failure and chronic lung disease co-exist in patients admitted with either to hospital and also how these patients do over the year following discharge.

    To do this we will ask all patients admitted to Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust over two years with a worsening of either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or heart failure (HF) to consent to participate in a screening program during which we will test for the presence of heart failure in all those admitted with COPD, and for COPD in all those admitted with HF to find out how many people have both conditions.

    Standard optimal therapy will be applied for either or both (drugs and inhalers where indicated) and all patients will be followed up at routine clinics at 2 months and 12 months to assess their quality of life using standard questionnaires and symptom scores and also to check whether they have been readmitted in the interim.

    Those with both conditions will also be invited to wear a small watch-like step counter for up to a year following their admission to hospital. This device can measure activity (using steps per day). We want to see whether in these patients, a progressively lower step count predicts subsequent hospital admission.

  • REC name

    South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    22/SW/0035

  • Date of REC Opinion

    3 May 2022

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion