Results of an observational retrospective multicenter study: “Campania INternal medicine - the Clinical INternist for heart failure”

Abstract

Introduction. The Campania population is characterized by a high incidence and prevalence of heart failure (HF). The aim of this study is to describe the clinical epidemiology, comorbidities, and treatments in HF patients admitted to Internal Medicine Wards (IMW) in Campania. Materials and Methods. It is a retrospective, regional, multicentric, observational study including patients admitted to 15 IMW in Campania, with an HF diagnosis, over a period of three consecutive months. Results. We identified 427 patients, stratified by ejection fraction (EF) category (127 EF≤40%; 216 EF 41-49%; 84 EF≥50%). In comparison with HFpEF subjects, patients with HFrEF were younger (74 years vs. 9 years), more commonly male (67% vs. 32%), and more likely to have an ischaemic aetiology (45% vs. 25%). The most used drugs at the time of hospitalization and after were Diuretics (80.3/93.5%), BBs (69.6/92.6%), and Statins (52.1/63.7%), with statistically significant pre-/post- differences (P≤0.05). Conclusions. EF is more likely to be non-preserved in younger males and in patients with CAD etiology. Hospitalization influences in a statistically significant way the change or adjustment of therapy for almost all drugs.

Keywords

• heart failure
• ejection fraction
• internal medicine ward
• epidemiology