- Experts Present Latest Data and Treatment Protocols Designed to Impact
Critical Pathway for Acute Heart Failure Patients -
NEW YORK and SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Scios Inc. today
announced that about 300 of the foremost heart failure investigators and
research coordinators from leading hospitals and academic health centers
across the country attended the 2003 National ADHERE Registry Mid-Year
Investigator Meeting in New York City this week.
ADHERE (Acute Decompensated Heart Failure National Registry) is a
first-of-its-kind national registry that prospectively collects observational
data designed to track and study the medical management of patients
hospitalized with acute heart failure across the United States. To date, more
than 250 participating hospitals have entered nearly 75,000 patients in the
ADHERE registry making it the largest, most extensive registry of its kind in
the world.
"The large number of patients and hospitals participating in this registry
and the quality and extent of data being captured are making The ADHERE
Registry the central resource for demonstrating substantial opportunities to
improve the care of patients hospitalized with acutely decompensated heart
failure," said Gregg Fonarow, M.D., Director, Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy
Center, Professor of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and
member of the scientific advisory committee for ADHERE. "ADHERE has reached
the point of critical mass with respect to relevant information that can now
truly impact the critical treatment pathway of these patients."
The ADHERE Registry is sponsored by Scios and overseen by an independent
scientific advisory committee of nationally recognized heart failure experts.
At the meeting, leading heart failure experts presented new data from the
ADHERE registry. These data are being incorporated into the ADHERE modules to
be used by clinicians to help create more informed treatment algorithms for
acute heart failure patients.
Data presented during the meeting by Bill Abraham, M.D., Professor of
Medicine, Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, The Ohio State
University and colleagues identified variables that may be predictive of
in-hospital mortality in patients with acutely decompensated heart failure.
While there are excellent risk scores developed for acute myocardial
infarction, such tools have not been available for acute heart failure. The
results suggest that heart failure patients at low, medium and high risk for
in-hospital mortality may be easily identified using vital sign and laboratory
data obtained on hospital admission. This ADHERE risk tree may provide
clinicians with a practical bedside tool for mortality risk stratification and
patient identification for more aggressive therapy.
ADHERE Critical Pathways and Heart Failure Management Program
Dr. Fonarow also presented an update on the ADHERE Critical Pathways and
Heart Failure Management program designed to improve the quality of heart
failure care nationwide. The comprehensive hospital-based process-of-care
improvement program includes educational materials and resources developed by
the ADHERE Scientific Advisory Committee, using the latest clinical trial
evidence and insights obtained from the ADHERE Registry.
"There are significant variations in treatments and outcomes for patients
hospitalized with heart failure which means that there are substantial
opportunities to improve care," said Dr. Fonarow. "The ADHERE Critical
Pathways Program's overall goal is to help individual hospitals implement the
most effective management of acute heart failure. The program will improve the
quality of care in heart failure, increase the use of evidence-based therapies
and potentially save lives."
A number of other presentations were made by leading experts including
Maria Rosa Costanzo, M.D., Midwest Heart Specialists, Clyde W. Yancy, M.D.,
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Cardiology, University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center, Charles L. Emerman, M.D., Professor and Chairman
of Emergency Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, and J. Thomas Heywood,
M.D., Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cardiomyopathy Program at Loma
Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, California. Dr. Costanzo's
presentation, "ADHERE: Bringing the Numbers to Life," detailed heart failure
patient characteristics for a number of conditions including renal
insufficiency, anemia and diabetes. Dr. Yancy's presentation, "Using the
ADHERE Registry to Narrow the Gap between Discovery and Clinical Application,"
outlined findings for African Americans with acute heart failure. Dr. Yancy
also presented data on heart failure patients admitted to hospitals with
preserved systolic function.
Dr. Emerman's presentation, "Vasoactive Therapy: in the Emergency
Department: Patient Identification, Use of Nesiritide and Importance of Early
Initiation of Therapy," highlighted how early initiation of vasoactive therapy
is associated with decreased length of stay, mortality rate, ICU length of
stay and resource utilization and that use of nesiritide specifically in the
ED/observation unit is associated with decreased admissions, lower
readmissions and decreased length of stay on readmission without increasing
the cost of care. Dr. Heywood's presentation, "Decongesting Patients,
Decongesting the Hospital," explored how the ADHERE Registry could help
identify ways to reduce hospital admissions and help shorten length of
hospital stay for heart failure patients. Marie Galveo, CANP, Nurse
Practitioner, Congestive Heart Failure Program, Montefiore Medical Center in
New York City presented on the need to incorporate heart failure Case Managers
and Quality Managers more consistently into multi-functional heart failure
teams, all along the hospital continuum of care.
New Outpatient Longitudinal Model
Last April, ADHERE was expanded to include the longitudinal model (LM) for
tracking more than 1,500 patients in the outpatient setting for two years.
Kirkwood F. Adams, Jr., M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine and
Radiology, Division of Cardiology, University of North Carolina, who presented
about the ADHERE LM Registry indicated that it provides a unique opportunity
to gather important data on many aspects of high risk patients with advanced
heart failure and could answer some very important questions about optimal
outpatient treatment strategies. For example, he said much more needed to be
learned about the prognostic role of renal insufficiency and whether standard
clinical characteristics can provide a user-friendly guide to risk using a
congestive heart failure (CHF) risk score.
About ADHERE
The ADHERE Registry Core Module was launched in October 2001. It is a
phase IV, multicenter, observational, open-label registry of the management of
patients treated in the hospital for acutely decompensated CHF. The Registry
is a large clinical database that utilizes information collected from acute
care hospitals across the United States. This first-of-its-kind registry is
designed to help the medical community better understand acute CHF, improve
its management and enhance quality of care. Data regarding current management
and treatment trends is collected from the Registry and analyzed on a
quarterly basis. This data and insight can be used by individual hospitals to
develop guidelines and protocols and increase the use of evidence-based
therapies to improve the standard of care among heart failure patients, and,
potentially reduce costs through reduced admissions, length of stay and
readmissions.
To learn more about the ADHERE Registry, call 1-866-616-2993, or e-mail
adhereinfo@sciosinc.com, or visit http://www.adhereregistry.com.
About Acute Heart Failure
An estimated 5 million Americans suffer from congestive heart failure,
with 550,000 new cases diagnosed annually. More than 1 million
hospitalizations, with a cost to the health-care system of $15 billion, occur
in the United States each year as a result of acute congestive heart failure.
Another 2 million Americans are hospitalized annually with acute congestive
heart failure as a secondary diagnosis. Congestive heart failure accounts for
the greatest number of hospitalizations of patients over the age of 65.
During an episode of acute heart failure, the heart's inability to
circulate blood adequately throughout the body worsens to the point where
hospitalization is necessary to stabilize the patient's condition. A sudden
increase in salt in a person's diet, a patient's failure to take prescribed
oral medications or the development of a new heart problem can cause these
acute episodes. Virtually all congestive heart failure patients will
experience at least one acute episode, in which the symptoms become so severe
that only intravenous medications administered in the hospital can improve a
patient's condition.
Scios Inc.
Scios, a Johnson & Johnson company, is a biopharmaceutical company of more
than 500 people headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Scios is developing
novel treatments for cardiovascular and inflammatory disease. The Company's
disease-based technology platform integrates expertise in protein biology with
computational and medicinal chemistry to identify novel targets and rationally
design small molecule compounds for large markets with unmet medical needs.
SOURCE Scios Inc.
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.sciosinc.com
CONTACT:
Jim Weiss or Rick Roose of WeissCom Partners,
Inc., +1-415-362-5018, or Sara Moorin of Lazar Partners, Inc.,
+1-212-867-1773, all for Scios
|
