Prevalence and misdiagnosis of chronic heart failure in nursing home residents: the role of B-type natriuretic peptides

Background/objectives. Without knowing the exact CHF prevalence, chronic heart failure (CHF) occurs frequently in elderly people both inside and outside nursing homes. For a diagnosis we have to rely on physical examination and additional tests. We therefore run the risk of missing CHF diagnoses or of diagnosing CHF when we should not. Natriuretic peptide assays have emerged as a diagnostic test but their use in nursing home residents is limited. We examined the number of misdiagnoses, the CHF prevalence and the role of natriuretic peptide.