Clinical Interventions in Aging (Feb 2019)

Modified frailty as a novel factor in predicting the response to cardiac resynchronization in the elderly population

  • Mlynarska A,
  • Mlynarski R,
  • Marcisz C,
  • Golba KS

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 14
pp. 437 – 443

Abstract

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Agnieszka Mlynarska,1,2 Rafal Mlynarski,2,3 Czeslaw Marcisz,1 Krzysztof S Golba2,3 1Department of Gerontology and Geriatric Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 2Department of Electrocardiology, Upper Silesian Heart Centre, Katowice, Poland; 3Department of Electrocardiology and Heart Failure, School of Health Sciences, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland Background: The response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an important element of the treatment of advanced heart failure, especially in the geriatric population. The aim of the study was to examine the impact of frailty syndrome on the response to treatment with CRT. Methods: Two hundred and forty-six patients of 60 years or older (aged 73.35±6.95; 22.4% women) with an implanted CRT were included in this single-center prospective study. There was a 12-month follow-up. The Tilburg Frailty Indicator was used to determine frailty (5 or more points). The response to CRT was evaluated based on an analysis of clinical criteria. Results: One hundred and sixty-nine of 246 (68.9%) patients were found to be clinical CRT responders. Frailty syndrome was recognized in 173 (70.32%). There were 63.0% responders in the frailty-affected group, whereas there were statistically more responders (79.5%) in the robust group (P=0.0116). In the logistic regression, frailty emerged as an independent predictor of the response to CRT (OR=0.81, 95% CI=0.71–0.92; P=0.0008). The area under the curve of the ROC curve for frailty in the responders to CRT was 0.62. The cut-off value for a designation of frailty was 6 (P=0.0014). Conclusion: Frailty is a novel independent factor that can be used to predict the clinical response to CRT in the elderly population. Modifying the level of recognition in the Tilburg Frailty Indicator can improve the prediction of a response to CRT. Keywords: cardiac resynchronization, frailty syndrome, heart failure, outcomes, responders

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