DETECTIN-HF
Dilated cardiomyopathies (DCM) represent a major cause for heart failure (HF), especially in the young.
Although it is estimated that 30-50% of all DCM cases are caused by a genetic predisposition, the precise
mechanisms that underlie the variations in disease susceptibility and phenotype presentation including risk
for HF development or sudden cardiac death (SCD) are virtually unknown.
To improve treatment and prognosis of DCM as a major cause for HF, there is an urgent need to
improve early disease detection, to establish common standards for phenotyping and to adequately predict
risk in patients and their relatives. Efforts thus far, however, have concentrated mostly on smaller studies,
single centers or national efforts at best.
The DETECTIN-HF consortium aims to improve this situation by applying selected clinical and molecular
markers in a multi-center, multi-national cohort. To enable true translation in the field, the consortium
aims at three major tasks: 1) Harmonization of existing national registries to foster trans-national research
on DCM. 2) To investigate the clinical value of selected biomarker candidates, genotypes and gender
effects in this large-scale cohort and 3) to develop and validate a personalized risk model for development
of HF and SCD in DCM patients.
By creating a single portal and harmonization of clinical workflows, a facility arises that is unprecedented in
scale and setup and that is invaluable for research and improved clinical practice. The here established
resources shall be available for other consortia within the ERA-CVD framework.
