Clinical and epidemiological characterization of patients discharged with heart failure

Abstract

A total of 112 patients diagnosed with chronic heart failure, according to the modified Framingham criteria, who were discharged from the Arnaldo Milian Castro Provincial University Hospital in Santa Clara, Villa Clara, in the period January to December 2010, were studied. The objective was to characterize, clinically and epidemiologically, the inpatient behavior of this syndrome. Females were predominant (57.14%). The leading cause of heart failure was ischemic heart disease. The leading cause of respiratory decompensation was sepsis. The number of diseased patients was higher among patients with two or more comorbidities, those with systolic dysfunction and those inadequately treated before being admitted, and the most frequent causes of death were pneumonia and pulmonary thromboembolism. It was concluded that it could not be demonstrated an association between the studied factors and mortality, and that treatment before admission is still inadequate.

Keywords

• insuficiencia cardiaca
• diagnostico clínico
• estudios epidemiológicos