New ESC guidelines pointed out the need to specify what are heart failure (HF) patients with mid-range left ventricular ejection fraction (mrLVEF)–defined by LVEF 40 to 49%–as compared to patients with preserved LVEF (pLVEF) and reduced LVEF (rLVEF). By using French Survey on Heart Failure (FRESH), we aim to compare characteristics of these 3 subgroups in HF.

FRESH is an ongoing multicenter survey collecting exhaustive data in both acute and chronic HF (NCT01956539). Comparisons were performed using χ² or Fisher test for categorical variables and ANOVA or non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test for continuous variables. Multinomial logistic regression was performed.

Among 1688 HF patients – 1093 with chronic HF and 595 with acute HF –, 54% had rLVEF, 19% had mrLEVF and 27% had pLVEF. There were numerous differences across LVEF subgroups in clinical characteristics as well as biology and use of medications. Table 1 shows significant results of the multivariate analysis in chronic and acute HF groups.

HF patients with mrLVEF exhibit significant differences with patient with rLVEF as well as pLVEF, including some common differences in both chronic and acute HF, which deserves further investigations.