Correlation between Nutritional Status and Mortality in Patients with Heart Failure

Objective To investigate the nutritional status of patients with heart failure and its effect on all-cause mortality. Methods A total of 351 patients with chronic heart failure, who were consecutively admitted to the East Hospital of Shanghai from March 2013 to November 2015, were put into the heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction(HFrEF) group. They were compared to 222 controls who were admitted during the same period for preclinical heart failure. After a median follow-up time of 606 days, 108 patients of the HFrEF group died, compared to 11 of the controls. Logistic regression was used to analyze correlations of all-cause mortality with the patients' body mass index (BMI), serum albumin and other factors. Results Compared to the controls, patients with chronic heart failure had lower BMI[(22.71±3.95)kg/m2vs.(24.23±3.66)kg/m2,t=4.331, P=0.000], total cholesterol[(3.81±0.99)mmol/L vs.(4.03±0.96)mmol/L, t=2.638, P=0.009], albumin[(38.18±5.03)g/L vs.(40.18±6.12)g/L, t=3.874, P=0.000] and prealbumin[(187.67±61.83)mg/L vs.(211.94±65.44)mg/L, t=3.937, P=0.000]. Within the HFrEF group, patients with lower BMI had higher mortality (36.0% vs. 22.4%, P=0.008). Logistic regression suggested BMI, age were independent predictors of all-cause death. Conclusions Patients with chronic heart failure had high incidence of malnutrition, and those with BMI<22 kg/m2 had higher risk of mortality. Serum albumin and BMI not only reflected nutritional status of the patients but had significant implications on prognosis. Key words: HFrEF; Nutritional status; All-cause death