Can inflammation markers predict heart failure outcomes?

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Age ≥18 years at recruitment. * Signed informed consent. * Hospitalization due to decompensated heart failure, based on Framingham criteria and elevated natriuretic peptides (N-terminal of the prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) ≥450 pg/ml, or ≥900 pg/ml for patients with atrial fibrillation or flutter). * Left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) ≥40% and evidence of structural heart disease based on the presence of at least one of the following imaging criteria: * Left atrial dilation: LA diameter ≥3.8 cm, or area ≥20 cm², or LA volume ≥55 ml, or indexed LA volume ≥29 ml/m². * Left ventricular hypertrophy, defined as septal or posterior wall thickness ≥1.1 cm. * Evidence of increased filling pressures, measured by septal or lateral E/e' ratio \>15 or \>12, respectively. Exclusion Criteria: * Hemodynamic instability at the time of inclusion. * Heart failure secondary to acute myocardial infarction (AMI). * Pregnant or breastfeeding women. * Comorbidities that could influence the clinical course: * COPD requiring long-term home oxygen therapy, oral corticosteroids, hospitalization due to exacerbation, or primary pulmonary arterial hypertension. * Chronic treatment with immunosuppressants, corticosteroids, or IL-1 antagonists within the 6 months prior to inclusion. * Confirmed active infection or patients currently receiving antibiotic treatment. * Acute or chronic liver disease. * Chronic kidney disease with eGFR \<15 ml/min/1.73 m² or need for dialysis during hospitalization. * Hematological disorders, such as blood dyscrasias or hemoglobin \<9 g/dl on admission. * Active oncological disease, except treated basal cell carcinoma or low-risk prostate cancer. * Patients with limb amputation or carriers of pacemakers or defibrillators (due to possible errors in BIA measurements). * Any disease associated with a life expectancy of less than one year, or patients expected to have difficulty adhering to the study protocol * Patients actively participating in other clinical trials involving investigational drugs at the time of inclusion.