Aims
Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes for hospitalization and mortality. After first admission with acute decompensated HF, some patients are in high risk for short‐term and long‐term mortality. These patients should be identified, closely followed up, and treated. It has been observed that blood urea nitrogen (BUN) on admission is a predictive marker for short‐term mortality. Recently, it has been shown that higher BUN levels on discharge are also a bad prognostic predictor. However, the prognostic value of BUN alteration during hospital stay was not investigated; therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of BUN variation during hospitalization on mortality.
Methods and results
A retrospective study included patients with first hospitalization with the primary diagnosis of HF. The patients were divided into four groups on the basis of the values of BUN on admission and discharge, respectively: normal‐normal, elevated‐normal, normal‐elevated, and elevated‐elevated. Four thousand seven hundred sixty‐eight patients were included; 2567 were male (53.8%); the mean age was 74.7 ± 12.7 years. The 90 day mortality rate in the normal‐normal group was 7% lower than that in the elevated‐normal (14.6%) and normal‐elevated (19.3%) groups; P value < 0.01. The 90 day mortality in the elevated‐elevated group (28.8%) was significantly higher than that in the other groups; P < 0.001. During the 36 month follow‐up, these results are maintained. While sub‐dividing BUN levels into <30, 30–39, and >40 mg/dL, higher BUN levels correlated with higher 90 day mortality rate regardless of creatinine levels, brain natriuretic peptide, or age. Moreover, BUN on admission and on discharge correlated better with mortality than did creatinine and glomerular filtration rate at the same points.
Conclusions
The BUN both on admission and on discharge is a prognostic predictor in patients with HF; however, patients with elevated levels both on admission and on discharge have the worst prognosis. Moreover, worsening or lack of improvement in BUN during hospitalization is a worse prognostic predictor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first trial to discuss the BUN change during hospitalization in HF.
Acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) is one of the leading causes for hospitalization and mortality. Identifying high risk patients is essential to ensure proper management. Sequential Organ Function Assessment Score (SOFA) is considered an excellent score to predict short-term mortality in sepsis and other life-threatening conditions. To assess the capability of SOFA score in predicting short-term mortality in ADHF. We retrospectively identified patients with first hospitalization with primary diagnosis of ADHF between the years (2008–2018). The SOFA score was calculated for all patients. A total 3232 patients were included in the study. The SOFA score was significantly associated with in-hospital mortality and 30-day mortality. The odds ratios for 1-point increase in the SOFA score were 1.86 (95% CI 1.68–1.96) and 1.627 (95% CI 1.523–1.737) respectively. The SOFA Score demonstrated a good predictive accuracy. The areas under the curve of receiver operating characteristic curves for in-hospital mortality and 30-day mortality were 0.765 (95% CI 0.733–0.798) and 0.706 (95% CI 0.676–0.736) respectively. SOFA score is associated with increased risk of short-term mortality in ADHF. SOFA can be used as a complementary risk score to screen high risk patients who need strict monitoring.
The prevalence of thrombophilia was higher in our study group than in the general population. Furthermore, treatment with enoxaparin might improve the rate of live births in women with or without evidence of thrombophilia, especially in women with ≥4 miscarriages.
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