BACKGROUND: Patients who require hospitalization because of decompensated HF represent a group of the most seriously ill individuals who evolve with high mortality and hospital readmission rates. OBJECTIVES: We sought to evaluate the current natural course of HF by analyzing mortality and readmission rates in this new era of neurohormonal blockage. METHODS: We followed the progress of 263 patients with a mean EF of 27.1%, admitted for decompensated HF between January 2005 and October 2006. Patients readmitted were only those whose health status precluded discharge after assessment and drug treatment in the Emergency Department. Patients were classified as HF-FC III/IV, mean age was 59.9+/-15.2 years, most were men, and 63.1% required inotropic drugs for cardiac compensation in the acute phase. RESULTS: Average hospital stay was 25.1+/-16.7 days. During hospitalization, 23 (8.8%) patients died. After discharge, over an average follow-up period of 370 days, of the 240 patients who were discharged 123 (51.2%) returned to the Emergency Department 1 to 12 times (total number of visits: 350); 76 of them were readmitted, and the average length of readmission stay was 23.5+/-18.0 days. Over the first year of follow-up, 62 (25.8%) patients died. CONCLUSIONS: HF remains a condition associated with high mortality and high hospital readmission rates. At the end of the first year, 44.5% of these patients had not needed to visit the ER or had died, which indicates that we should provide HF patients with the best possible care in an attempt to change the natural course of this increasingly frequent syndrome.
BACKGROUND:Patients who require hospitalization because of decompensated HF represent a group of the most seriously ill individuals who evolve with high mortality and hospital readmission rates. OBJECTIVES: We sought to evaluate the current natural course of HF by analyzing mortality and readmission rates in this new era of neurohormonal blockage. METHODS: We followed the progress of 263 patients with a mean EF of 27.1%, admitted for decompensated HF between January 2005 and October 2006. Patients readmitted were only those whose health status precluded discharge after assessment and drug treatment in the Emergency Department. Patients were classified as HF-FC III/IV, mean age was 59.9+/-15.2 years, most were men, and 63.1% required inotropic drugs for cardiac compensation in the acute phase. RESULTS: Average hospital stay was 25.1+/-16.7 days. During hospitalization, 23 (8.8%) patients died. After discharge, over an average follow-up period of 370 days, of the 240 patients who were discharged 123 (51.2%) returned to the Emergency Department 1 to 12 times (total number of visits: 350); 76 of them were readmitted, and the average length of readmission stay was 23.5+/-18.0 days. Over the first year of follow-up, 62 (25.8%) patients died. CONCLUSIONS: HF remains a condition associated with high mortality and high hospital readmission rates. At the end of the first year, 44.5% of these patients had not needed to visit the ER or had died, which indicates that we should provide HF patients with the best possible care in an attempt to change the natural course of this increasingly frequent syndrome.
Authors: Heather M Prendergast; Samuel Dudley; John Kane; Martha Daviglus; Jared Marcucci; Anthony Acosta; E Bradshaw Bunney; Dejuran Richardson; Tamara O'Neal Journal: High Blood Press Cardiovasc Prev Date: 2014-09
Authors: Carlos Henrique Del Carlo; Juliano Novaes Cardoso; Marcelo Eidi Ochia; Mucio Tavares de Oliveira; José Antonio Franchini Ramires; Antonio Carlos Pereira-Barretto Journal: Arq Bras Cardiol Date: 2014-04-17 Impact factor: 2.000
Authors: Thomas Callender; Mark Woodward; Gregory Roth; Farshad Farzadfar; Jean-Christophe Lemarie; Stéphanie Gicquel; John Atherton; Shadi Rahimzadeh; Mehdi Ghaziani; Maaz Shaikh; Derrick Bennett; Anushka Patel; Carolyn S P Lam; Karen Sliwa; Antonio Barretto; Bambang Budi Siswanto; Alejandro Diaz; Daniel Herpin; Henry Krum; Thomas Eliasz; Anna Forbes; Alastair Kiszely; Rajit Khosla; Tatjana Petrinic; Devarsetty Praveen; Roohi Shrivastava; Du Xin; Stephen MacMahon; John McMurray; Kazem Rahimi Journal: PLoS Med Date: 2014-08-12 Impact factor: 11.069
Authors: Ricardo João Westphal; Ronaldo Rocha Loures Bueno; Paulo Bezerra de Araújo Galvão; José Zanis Neto; Juliano Mendes Souza; Ênio Eduardo Guérios; Alexandra Cristina Senegaglia; Paulo Roberto Brofman; Ricardo Pasquini; Claudio Leinig Pereira da Cunha Journal: Arq Bras Cardiol Date: 2014-11-04 Impact factor: 2.000
Authors: Irineu Blanco Moreno; Carlos Henrique del Carlo; Antônio Carlos Pereira-Barretto Journal: Arq Bras Cardiol Date: 2013-10-08 Impact factor: 2.000