A single-center, cross-sectional, observational study of heart failure patients

Abstract

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) is an important emerging public health problem of the modern world. The scenario of HF in developing and underdeveloped countries is largely unknown. This study was carried out to understand the clinical profile of HF patients treated at a tertiary care center. Methods: It was a single-center, prospective, observational study carried out during the period 2011–2012 at MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital, Bengaluru. All the patients admitted to the cardiology unit with a diagnosis of HF were selected, and baseline patient characteristics were noted. Patients were investigated as per the clinical need and data documented. Results: Of the 97 patients included, 41 (42.3%) were female, and 56 (57.7%) were male. Majority belonged to 65–79 years age group (59.79%) and octogenarians constituted 15.46% of our study participants. Almost all the males (94.64%) were overweight (body mass index between 25 and 29.9 kg/m2), whereas 48.78% females were overweight, 12.19% belonged to obesity Class I. 85.37% females had the waist circumference >80 cm and 73.21% males >90 cm. Hypertension (79.38%), diabetes mellitus (DM) (62.89%), and coronary artery disease (CAD) (44.33%) were the commonly associated comorbidities. Among other factors studied, anemia was seen in 24.39% female, and 32.14% of male patients. Conclusion: This study showed that a significant proportion of inpatients belonged to elderly age group. Octogenarians also formed a sizeable proportion of patients. Hypertension, CAD, DM, overweight, and anemia were identified as the commonly associated comorbidities and understanding the complex interplay of these factors to plan optimal treatment strategy is of great challenge to the physician, especially when dealing with the elderly and very elderly group.

Keywords

• Anemia
• diastolic
• epidemiology
• heart failure
• systolic