Background: With the aging of the population and improvement of the management and survival of patients with reduced left ventricular function, acute heart failure (AHF) became one of the leading causes for hospitalization. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the contemporary burden of AHF in the ICCU and the characteristics, resources utilization, and in-hospital outcome in a large consecutive group of patients admitted to the ICCU for AHF.
Methods: We evaluated 1,010 consecutive patients admitted to our ICCU during 2014. Patients were divided into two groups based on whether admitted due to AHF or not.
Results: 175 patients (17%) were admitted for AHF as the leading cause and 839 (83%) for other reasons. Yet AHF accounted for 24% of ICCU hospitalization days. Of the AHF patients, 120 (69%) had ischemic and 55 (31%) non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. AHF patients were older (69±15 vs. 65±15,p<0.001), more likely to be diabetic (52% vs. 30%,p< 0.001), and suffer more frequently from chronic renal failure (37% vs. 11%,p<0.0001), pulmonary hypertension (11% vs. 3%,p<0.0001), anemia (17% vs. 10%,p<0.05), severe infection (13% vs. 4.7%,p<0.05) or cognitive decline (11% vs. 4%,p<0.001). Treatment of patients hospitalized for AHF consisted of a higher use of mechanical ventilation (21% vs. 6%,p<0.001), inotropic support (38% vs. 11%,p<0.01), and invasive hemodynamic monitoring (30% vs.14%,p
Conclusions: Contemporarily AHF accounts for as much as 25% of the hospitalization days in ICCU. AHF patients are older and have more co-morbidities and sustain longer` more complicated in-hospital course with higher mortality.
