Zhang X, Sun Y, Zhang Y, et al. - Relative to patients with persistent heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), better clinical results were seen in heart failure with recovered ejection fraction (HFrecEF), which represents a distinct heart failure phenotype. A relatively better short-term mortality at 24 months but not thereafter was observed in HFrecEF patients.

• This is a retrospective analysis including adults who had at least two echocardiograms 3 months apart, with an initial diagnosis of HFrEF (n=1160).

• Patients were split into HFrecEF group and persistent HFrEF group based on the second left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

• In HFrecEF vs persistent HFrEF, 8.10% vs 18.84% had all-cause mortality, and rehospitalizations occurred in 26.76% vs 48.63%, respectively.

• Compared with HFrecEF group, a higher risk of all-cause death [hazard ratio (HR) 2.30] and rehospitalization (HR 1.85) was observed in persistent HFrEF.

• In subgroup analysis, lower rates of adverse outcomes were noted in the LVEF ≥ 20% improvement subgroup vs those with less improvement of 10–20%.