Associations between acute heart failure and cardiovascular outcomes]

The aim of the study was to determine associations of acute coronary syndrome and acute heart failure with mortality from cardiovascular causes during hospitalization and mortality from cardiovascular causes and chronic heart failure during one-year period.A total of 1554 consecutive patients with discharge diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome, treated at the Clinic of Cardiology, Hospital of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (former Kaunas University of Medicine) in 2005, were prospectively enrolled into the study. For the assessment of patients' status, data from the Cardiac Center Registry database were used. Patients were followed up for one year from admission to hospital.Acute heart failure was diagnosed in 32.3% of patients during hospitalization, and chronic heart failure was diagnosed in 17% during a one-year follow-up period. Myocardial revascularization was performed in 70.8% of patients with coronary artery stenosis of ≥70%. After one year, chronic heart failure was documented in 1039 patients, and it was almost three times more frequent in patients who had acute heart failure at diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome than in patients without acute coronary syndrome during hospitalization (31.4% vs. 11.6%; P<0.05). Death from cardiovascular causes occurred more frequently in patients with acute heart failure than without it during both in-hospital and out-of-hospital periods (11.5% vs. 1.9%, P<0.001; 7.7% vs. 2.3%, P<0.001).In the presence of acute coronary syndrome, diagnosed acute heart failure significantly increases the frequency of chronic heart failure during one-year period and mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases during hospitalization and one-year period.