Over 80% of heart failure inpatient admissions originate in the emergency department. Previous studies have suggested an emergency department misdiagnosis rate of 10–20% [1, 2]. Despite this high rate of discordance between the emergency department diagnosis and true diagnosis, the characteristics of those heart failure patients that are not initially diagnosed with heart failure in the emergency department have not been rigorously evaluated. This paper describes the clinical characteristics of heart failure patients not initially diagnosed as decompensated heart failure in the emergency department.

Reprinted with Permission from BioMed Central Ltd.