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The perceptions of heart failure patients about their prognoses can affect many medical decisions, including selection of treatment approaches and planning for end-of-life care. Although prognoses for patients with severe heart failure can be as or more ominous than those of patients with cancer, severity often is underappreciated by heart failure patients. Duke University investigators asked 122 patients with heart failure (mean age, 62; 58% NYHA class I or II, 42% class III or IV) to estimate their life expectancies.
The median life expectancy predicted by patients was 13 years, compared with a median of 10 years estimated by a heart-failure predictive model (based on clinical and demographic parameters) and nearly 21 years predicted by an…