Nutritional Status among patients with Heart Failure and Thyroid Diseases - Result of Nutritional Status Heart Study (NSHS)

Type of funding sources: Other. Main funding source(s): Wroclaw Medical University

Nutritional status is related to the prognosis and the length of hospitalization of individuals with heart failure. The effects of thyroid dysfunction in patients with pre-existing heart failure and nutritional status have not been adequately studied.

This study aims to assess how nutritional status affects thyroid disease in patients with heart failure.

We performed a retrospective study and analysis of medical records of 1056 patients admitted to the cardiology department of our University Clinical Hospital between September 2017 and September 2020 due to acute heart failure (HF) (ICD10: I50). We analyzed all the patients who met the inclusion criteria (diagnosis of HF, age ≥18 years old). A final group of 1056 patients’ medical records was analyzed. The analysis included data such as age, gender, patients’ body mass index (BMI), and laboratory results such as total data on past and comorbid disease units and assessment of the nutritional status of the patient via the NRS-2002. Our study was approved by the independent Bioethics Committee of the Wroclaw Medical University (decision no. KB–590/2020). Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica 13.1 (StatSoft, Inc., Tulsa, OK, USA). The results were considered statistically significant at p<0.05

A total of 1056 individuals were included in the analysis. It included more men than women (66,7%) Due to a lack of data for some parameters, those numbers are smaller and are provided for each variable. More than 76% of participants were overweight or obese. 4.3% of patients were in risk of malnutrition. Thyroid disease registered in 15.1% of patients (Hyperthyroidism – 5.3% and Hypothyroidism 9.8%)

Based on BMI, four groups were distinguished: <18.5, 18.5–24.9, 25.0–29.9, and ≥30 The occurrence of Hyperthyroidism was more frequently observed in the group of overweight patients (p=0,02) (table 1).

Based on NRS2002, two groups were distinguished: <3 and ≥3. In the group with risk of malnutrition (NRS ≥3) patients had a mean statistically significant higher FT4 (<0.001) than the group with no risk of malnutrition (NRS <3) ( x̅ : 2,02 ng/dl vs x̅ : 1.35 ng/dl, p<0.001). Additionally, lower scores of FT3 were observed in the group NRS ≥3 (x̅ : 1.91 ng/dl, p<0.001) (table2).

This study shows that patients with thyroid disease and heart failure were often overweight and obese. The risk of malnutrition status correlates with a lower result of FT3 and the highest FT4. Undoubtedly, those phenomena require further research.