A Potential Relationship Between HALP Score and In-Hospital Mortality in Acute Heart Failure

Introduction

Acute heart failure (AHF) is associated with a dismal prognosis that is even poorer than the majority of cancer types. Therefore, clinical indicators that can aid in determining the prognosis of heart failure are of interest. Multiple risk prediction tools with varying sensitivity and specificities have been introduced before. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate whether the HALP score could accurately predict in-hospital mortality in patients with AHF.

Methods

We evaluated the medical records of a total of 153 patients admitted to our institution between August 2016–May 2018 for acute heart failure. The patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 (patients who died during hospital admission) and Group 2 (patients who were discharged from the hospital). The HALP score was calculated as: hemoglobin (g/L) x albumin (g/L) x lymphocytes (/L)/platelets (/L) for each patient. The two groups were compared in terms of HALP scores. The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was utilized to assess the predictive performance of HALP on in-hospital mortality in AHF.

Results

Patients who died during admission had lower HALP scores compared with the patients who were discharged uneventfully. A ROC curve analysis was performed to predict the optimal cut-off value of the HALP score. The area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and the cut-off value were 0.650, 43%, 57%, 21,5 respectively (p = 0.014).

Conclusion

Despite all evolving treatment modalities, heart failure-related mortality rates remain high. Prompt recognition of patients with an unfavorable prognosis is vital for the timely implementation of disease-modifying therapeutic interventions. The HALP score, being a readily calculable tool, serves as an effective means to pinpoint individuals at a heightened risk of in-hospital mortality. We believe that the HALP score holds promise as a practical tool for predicting in-mortality among patients admitted for AHF.