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Although many transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) measurements have been shown to predict outcome in heart failure (HF), whether incremental risk prediction is afforded by their combination is unknown. We developed a simple echocardiographic risk score of mortality in HF patients.

We performed TTE in 747 systolic HF patients followed‐up for 34 ± 23 months. The Cox hazard model was used to evaluate the association between 14 TTE parameters and death. The Echo Heart Failure Score (EHFS) was derived by assigning the value of 1 to each independent predictor when present, and 0 when it was absent, and then by summing the number. The 3‐year risk prediction improvement was tested by adding the EHFS to a model containing clinical predictors, and by calculating the C index and net reclassification improvement (NRI). Five baseline TTE variables (end‐systolic volume …