(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- What causes people with heart failure to have to go
to the hospital? And more importantly, can anything be done to keep them at home
instead?
Those were the questions researchers asked in a new study conducted among a
large database of more than 48,000 heart failure patients. A subset of nearly
5,800 were followed for up to 90 days after discharge to collect additional
data.
The investigators found several factors increased the likelihood someone with
the condition would end up in the hospital, including pneumonia or other
respiratory problems, obstructed blood flow to the heart, irregular heartbeat,
and uncontrolled high blood pressure. Patients were also more likely to be
hospitalized if they weren’t taking their medications properly or were not
following the recommended diet for heart failure patients. Worsening kidney
function upped the hospitalization risk as well.
“Over 60 percent of hospitalized heart failure patients had at least one of
these precipitating factors at hospital admission,” study author Gregg C.
Fonarow, M.D., associate chief of the UCLA Division of Cardiology, was quoted as
saying.
Those with pneumonia, obstructed blood flow to the heart, and worsening kidney
function were more likely to die while in the hospital and also had longer
hospital stays. People who weren’t following the recommended diet or who had
uncontrolled blood pressure fared better, probably because those conditions are
more easily treated, the authors reason.
The authors conclude more can be done to keep heart failure patients out of the
hospital, such as working with them on diet and medications and ensuring they
receive annual flu vaccines and the pneumonia vaccine to minimize respiratory
ailments.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2008;168:847-854
