VALIANT Heart Failure (LV Dysfunction) Index Calculator

Predictors of the first heart failure hospitalization in patients who are stable survivors of myocardial infarction complicated by pulmonary congestion and/or left ventricular dysfunction — VALIANT Study: Explanation and clinical context The VALIANT Heart Failure Risk Score was derived from the VALsartan In Acute myocardial iNfarction Trial (VALIANT) cohort and was designed to estimate the risk of first hospitalization for heart failure within approximately 3 years among post-MI patients who had pulmonary congestion and/or left ventricular systolic dysfunction but no prior history of heart failure. The model uses readily available clinical variables at baseline and early follow-up — age, race, presence of diabetes, history of prior myocardial infarction, peripheral vascular disease, left bundle branch block on ECG, Killip class at presentation, and New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class at 45 days — to assign integer points that sum to a score ranging 0–33. Higher scores signal substantially higher 3-year risk of HF hospitalization.

Clinically, the score helps identify stable post-MI survivors who may benefit from closer surveillance, optimization of guideline-directed medical therapy, and early multidisciplinary follow-up to reduce HF morbidity. This calculator implements the variable structure of the original VALIANT score; for precise risk percentages and the validated point allocations, refer to the original publication and the validated online calculators.