Association of anemia and renal dysfunction with in-hospital mortality among patients hospitalized for acute heart failure syndromes with preserved or reduced ejection fraction

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of anemia and renal dysfunction with in-hospital outcomes in acute heart failure syndromes patients with preserved or reduced ejection fraction.

Of the 4842 patients enrolled in the Acute Decompensated Heart Failure Syndromes (ATTEND) registry, 4693 patients were evaluated to investigate the association among anemia, renal dysfunction, a preserved or reduced ejection fraction and in-hospital mortality. They were divided into four groups based on hemoglobin and estimated glomerular filtration rate at admission. The in-hospital mortality rate was 5.9% and 6.9% of the preserved and reduced ejection fraction groups, respectively. After adjustment for multiple comorbidities, there was no association of either anemia or renal dysfunction alone with in-hospital mortality in preserved ejection fraction patients, but the combination of anemia and renal dysfunction was associated with a somewhat higher risk of in-hospital mortality than that without either condition (odds ratio (OR), 2.75; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.72–10.41; p=0.137). In reduced ejection fraction patients, adjusted analysis showed that a significantly higher risk of in-hospital mortality was associated with anemia alone (OR, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.10-5.94; p=0.029) and with anemia plus renal dysfunction (OR, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.09–5.03; p=0.029) relative to the risk without either condition.

Our findings demonstrate that anemia combined with renal dysfunction is not a risk factor for in-hospital mortality in patients with a preserved ejection fraction, whereas anemia is an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality risk in reduced ejection fraction patients regardless of renal dysfunction.