Abstract

DIZEO, Claudio et al. Cardio-renal syndrome at admission as a predictor of worse in hospital outcome in elderly patients hospitalized with heart failure. Insuf. card. [online]. 2012, vol.7, n.3, pp.102-108. ISSN 1852-3862.

Background. There is a high prevalence of renal dysfunction in the population of patients with heart failure (HF). The term cardio-renal syndrome (CRS) defines the process by which a dysfunction of organs induces dysfunction of the other. The aim is to evaluate whether the presence of CRS at hospital admission is a predictor of worse in hospital outcome in elderly patients hospitalized with HF. Methods and material. Elderly patients admitted to the Coronary Care Unit with a diagnosis of heart failure between June 2009 and March 2011 were selected to be included in this analysis. They were divided into two groups: with definitive CRS, defined as blood creatinine more than 1.5 mg/dL and blood urea more than 55 mg/dL and without CRS. An ejection fraction less than 45% by echocardiography (Simpson) was considered as significant systolic dysfunction. The previous patient's clinical history, condition on admittance and in hospital progress were analyzed. Worse hospital outcome (WHO) end points were defined as death, need for inotropic for more than 48 hours or the need for mechanical ventilation. The need for dialysis or ultra filtration was not considered to avoid a possible bias with that complication and CRS. The results are presented as the median ± standard deviation, the comparisons' were performed according to the type of variable and the multivariate analysis was performed by logistic regression. Results. A total of 196 patients (107 women) with an average age of 78 ± 8.3 years were analyzed, 45 had CRS. Patients with CRS had a blood urea of 125 ± 56 mg/dl and a creatinine level of 2.91 ± 2.0 mg/dl. The 151 patients without CRS had a blood urea of 53 ± 23 mg/dl and a creatinine level of 0.98 ± 0.29 mg/dl. In the CRS 60% (27 patients) were men vs 41% (62 patients) in the group without CRS (p=0.03). There was no significant difference between both groups as far as diabetes (31% vs 22%), hypertension (92% vs 86%), atrial fibrillation (38% vs 36%), previous myocardial infarction (13% vs 11%), and smoking (10.5% vs 8.3%). In patients with CRS there were more with previous history of anemia and lower hematocrit at admittance (34% vs 38%, p=0.003). Whereas, there was no significant difference between the both groups in the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (16% vs 10%), heart rate at entry (90 ± 25 bpm vs 96 ± 26 bpm), arterial systolic pressure (151 ± 32 mm Hg vs 152 ± 34 mm Hg) and blood sodium (135 ± 7 mEq/L vs 136 mEq/L). A total of 34 patients (17%) meets the criteria of WHO, 15 in the group with CRS (33%) and 19 (13%) in the non CRS, p=0.003. In the multivariate analysis independent predictors of WHO were the presence of CRS (OR 2.891.23-6.79, p=0.02), COPD (OR 4.88 1.63-14.56, p=0.005), blood sodium (OR 0.93 0.87-0.99, p=0.03) and heart rate (OR 0.98 0.96-0.99, p=0.04). Although blood urea and creatinine define CRS and were independent predictors, they tended to cancel themselves out. Conclusion. In elderly patients hospitalized because of heart failure CRS, defined by simultaneous increase of blood urea and creatinine, was more frequent in males and was an independent predictor of worse outcome, as was also COPD, hyponatremia and lower heart rate. Whereas hematocrit, which was found to be low in CRS, was not related to worse development, neither was advanced age or systolic dysfunction as defined in this study.

Keywords : Cardio-renal syndrome; Heart failure; Worse hospital outcome.

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