Relationship between early drop in systolic blood pressure, worsening renal function, and in-hospital mortality in patients with heart failure: a retrospective, observational study

This study aimed to determine the optimal cut-off value of the early drop in systolic blood pressure (SBP) for worsening renal function (WRF) in hospitalized patients with heart failure (HF) and analyze predictors of WRF and the early drop in SBP at that threshold. We retrospectively enrolled 396 patients with acute decompensated HF. The early drop in SBP was defined as the difference between baseline and SBP measured 24 h after hospitalization. We performed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to determine the optimal cut-off value of the early drop in SBP for WRF and evaluated the effect of the early drop in SBP on in-hospital mortality by multivariate logistic regression analyses. The mean age of the patients was 73.4 ± 14.7 years, and 61.2% were men. A 14.0% drop in SBP was identified as the optimal cut-off value for WRF from the ROC curve analysis. An early drop in SBP ≥ 14.0% was associated with WRF in multivariate logistic regression analysis (odds ratio 7.84; 95% confidence interval 4.06-15.14; P < 0.0001). The dose of intravenous furosemide within 24 h of admission was one of the predictors of the early drop in SBP ≥ 14.0%, while no early drop in SBP was a predictor of in-hospital mortality in multivariate logistic regression models. In conclusion, the optimal cut-off value for WRF in patients with HF was a 14.0% drop in SBP within 24 h of admission. The early drop in SBP ≥ 14.0% was one of the predictors of WRF in patients with HF. However, no early drop in SBP was associated with in-hospital mortality. This study was registered with the University Hospital Medical Information Network in Japan (UMIN000035989).

Highlights in heart failure

Heart failure (HF) remains a major cause of mortality, morbidity, and poor quality of life. It is an area of active research. This article is aimed to give an update on recent advances in all aspects of this syndrome. Major changes occurred in drug treatment of HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Sacubitril/valsartan is indicated as a substitute to ACEi/ARBs after PARADIGM-HF (hazard ratio [HR], 0.80; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73 to 0.87 for sacubitril/valsartan vs. enalapril for the primary endpoint and Wei, Lin and Weissfeld HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.71-0.89 for recurrent events). Its initiation was then shown as safe and potentially useful in recent studies in patients hospitalized for acute HF. More recently, dapagliflozin and prevention of adverse-outcomes in DAPA-HF trial showed the beneficial effects of the sodium-glucose transporter type 2 inhibitor dapaglifozin vs. placebo, added to optimal standard therapy [HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.85;0.74; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.85 for the primary endpoint]. Trials with other SGLT 2 inhibitors and in other patients, such as those with HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) or with recent decompensation, are ongoing. Multiple studies showed the unfavourable prognostic significance of abnormalities in serum potassium levels. Potassium lowering agents may allow initiation and titration of mineralocorticoid antagonists in a larger proportion of patients. Meta-analyses suggest better outcomes with ferric carboxymaltose in patients with iron deficiency. Drugs effective in HFrEF may be useful also in HF with mid-range ejection fraction. Better diagnosis and phenotype characterization seem warranted in HF with preserved ejection fraction. These and other burning aspects of HF research are summarized and reviewed in this article.

Patterns of dyspnoea onset in patients with acute heart failure: clinical and prognostic implications

Aims

Despite attempts to improve the management of patients with acute heart failure (HF), virtually all therapeutic agents investigated in large clinical trials failed to show any consistent reduction in mortality and morbidity. Complexity of the clinical syndrome of acute HF seems to be likely an underlying explanation. Traditionally, clinical trials studied mixed patient populations with acute HF, and only recently, better clinical characterization of patients has been proposed. Dyspnoea is the most common presenting symptom related to hospital admission for acute HF. Whether in patients with acute HF, the pattern of symptoms onset preceding hospital admission is associated with clinical characteristics, and the outcomes have not yet been established.

Methods and results

We investigated 137 patients (mean age: 65 ± 13 years; 80% men) hospitalized due to acute HF with dyspnoea as major reported symptom, who were divided according to the time of its onset into those with acute (n = 98) vs. subacute (n = 39) onset (i.e. within 7 days vs. >7 days preceding hospital admission, respectively). On admission, the former group presented higher blood pressure (138 ± 33 vs. 121 ± 32 mmHg), more often moderate–severe pulmonary congestion (33 vs. 8%), and lower bilirubin level [1.07 (0.72–1.60) vs. 1.27 (0.87–2.06); P < 0.05 in all comparisons]. There were no other differences in baseline clinical characteristics and laboratory indices. Higher percentage of patients with an acute dyspnoea onset reported marked/moderate dyspnoea relief after 6 (18% vs. 7%), 24 (59% vs. 24%), and 48 h (80% vs. 46% assessed as an improvement of at least 5 points in self‐reported 10‐point Likert scale; P < 0.05 in all time points). In patients with an acute onset of dyspnoea after 48 h, a decrease of N‐terminal pro BNP was more frequently observed (83% vs. 65%), and the levels of endothelin‐1 were more reduced [−1.1 (−2.9–0.03) vs 0.4 (−2.2–1.4); all P < 0.05]. Patients with acute onset experienced less in‐hospital HF worsening (13% vs. 40%, P = 0.001), and 1 year cardiovascular mortality was significantly lower (20% vs. 41%, P = 0.01). On the multivariable analysis, subacute pattern of dyspnoea was independent predictor of 12 month cardiovascular mortality in patients with acute HF after adjusting for other prognostic factors: systolic blood pressure, urea, and HF de novo [hazard ratio (95% confidence interval): 2.32 (1.13–4.75), P = 0.02].

Conclusions

In patients with acute HF, the pattern of symptoms onset is associated with baseline differences in clinical characteristics, biomarker profile, response to standard treatment, and the long‐term outcomes. This is relevant information for planning future clinical trials.

An integrative review of the literature on in-hospital worsening heart failure

A subset of patients hospitalized for acute exacerbation of chronic heart failure develop in-hospital worsening heart failure. The objective of this paper is to present an integrative review of in-hospital worsening heart failure, including definitions, incidence, prevalence, mechanisms, treatments, outcomes, and early identification by providers. A search of electronic databases was conducted from January 2000-August 2017 using multiple search terms. Papers were reviewed for relevance; retained papers were abstracted and data were reported in a narrative synthesis. Twenty papers were selected. Many papers were observational data from in-hospital events that occurred during research trials. There was great variability in in-hospital worsening heart failure definition, incidence, prevalence, and treatments offered. Despite rescue therapies, in-hospital worsening heart failure was associated with increased risk for longer hospital stays, higher readmission rates, and death. To date, there are no therapies that target the underlying mechanisms or minimize its occurrence.

Clinical characteristics, management and outcomes of patients with chronic heart failure: Results from the heart function assessment registry trial in Saudi Arabia (HEARTS-chronic)

BACKGROUND

Several registries have described patients hospitalized with heart failure (HF), but only few looked at outpatients in the ambulatory setting mostly without long-term follow-up. We sought to determine the clinical characteristics, management, and 1-year outcomes of patients with chronic HF in Saudi Arabia.

METHODS

Part of a prospective multicenter nationwide registry; HEart function Assessment Registry Trial in Saudi Arabia (HEARTS) and included chronic HF patients referred to four HFCs between September 2009 and December 2011.

RESULTS

We enrolled 685 patients with mean age 55.66±15.97years, 70.1% were men and 96.1% were Saudis. The main etiologies of HF were CAD (38.8%), dilated cardiomyopathy (36.5%), and hypertension (10.5%). Severe left ventricular dysfunction was present in 70.6% and median NT-proBNP was 2934.37pg/ml. The prescription rates of evidence based therapies (EBTs) before admission to HFC, at discharge from 1st clinic visit, and at 1-year follow up were 90%, 91% and 94% for beta-blockers, 79%, 80%, and 86% for ACEi/ARBs and 44%, 45%, and 42% for aldosterone antagonists; respectively. ICD was inserted in 21.9% and CRT in 6.6% at enrollment and increased to 29.1% and 8.8% after one year respectively. The all-cause mortality rate at 1year was 9% and 93.7% of which was cardiac-related. The all-cause one-year hospitalization rate was 39% and the total emergency room visit rate was 50%.

CONCLUSIONS

Chronic HF patients in Saudi Arabia are younger, commonly have severe LV systolic dysfunction and have relatively high annual mortality and re-hospitalization rates.

Relationship between worsening renal function and long-term cardiovascular mortality in heart failure patients

BACKGROUND

Recently several studies showed that worsening renal function (WRF) during hospitalization might be a strong independent predictor of poor prognosis in decompensated heart failure (HF) patients. However, these studies had a relatively short follow-up duration and their data were limited to in-hospital outcomes. Our purpose was to assess the relationship between WRF and long-term cardiovascular mortality in HF patients.

METHODS

We enrolled decompensated HF patients who were admitted to our hospital between April 2010 and March 2015. WRF was defined as a relative increase in serum creatinine of at least 25% or an absolute increase in serum creatinine ≥0.3mg/dL from the baseline. We assessed the cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality in HF patients with WRF (WRF group) and without WRF (no WRF group).

RESULTS

Among 301 patients enrolled, WRF developed in 118 patients (39.2%). During a median follow-up period of 537days [interquartile range, 304.3 to 1025.8days], cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality were significantly higher in the WRF group than in the no WRF group (23.2% vs. 6.1%, P<0.001; 30.3% vs. 14.7%, P<0.001, respectively). In the multivariate Cox proportional hazards model, age and serum B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) level were associated with both cardiovascular death and all-cause death. However, WRF was not the independent predictor of cardiovascular death (P=0.19) nor all-cause death (P=0.57).

CONCLUSIONS

WRF was associated with cardiovascular death in patients with HF. Although not an independent predictor, WRF might be one of useful markers to identify patients who should be followed carefully after discharge.