Study patients
Participants of SCD-HeFT who had 3 or more assessments of EF, at least 90 days apart were included in the current analysis (Figure 1). While the baseline, qualifying assessment of EF was necessary to participate in the SCD-HeFT, the subsequent EF assessments were not mandated by the study protocol.9 The average number of EF assessments per person was 2.40. Of the 2521 participants of the SCD-HeFT, 1310 had 2, and 1211 had 3 or more EF measurements. Of the 1211 patients with 3 or more EF measurements, 33 were excluded from the current analysis because they had <90 days between EF 1 and EF 2 (n=6) or between EF 2 and EF 3 (n=27). Thus, total sample size for this analysis was 1178 (Figure 1).