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Association of Diastolic Dysfunction and Outcomes in Ambulatory Older Adults With Chronic Heart Failure

Geriatric Heart Failure Clinic, and Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Geriatric Heart Failure Clinic and Section of Geriatrics, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, Alabama.

Address correspondence to Ali Ahmed, MD, MPH, Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1530 3rd Ave. South, CH-19, Ste-219, Birmingham, AL 35294-2041. E-mail: aahmed{at}uab.edu

Background. Studies of patients with heart failure and preserved systolic function report variable outcomes compared with those of patients with impaired systolic function.

Objective. To study outcomes of diastolic (vs systolic) heart failure in older adults with chronic heart failure.

Methods. Patients were ambulatory chronic heart failure patients 65 years and older (N = 3984) who participated in the Digitalis Investigation Group trial. Of these, 3405 had systolic heart failure (ejection fraction 45%) and 579 had diastolic heart failure (ejection fraction >45%). By using a 1:1 match by age, sex, and race, 571 diastolic heart failure patients were matched with 571 systolic heart failure patients. Kaplan–Meier survival analyses and multivariable Cox proportional hazard analyses were used to estimate the risk of various outcomes between the groups.

Results. During the 1044 mean days of follow up, compared with 41% of systolic heart failure patients, 27% of diastolic heart failure patients died (p <.001). Presence of diastolic heart failure was independently associated with a 27% decreased risk of all-cause death (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 0.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.58–0.91) and a 32% reduction in risk of hospitalization due to heart failure (adjusted HR = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.52–0.88). There was no difference in overall hospitalization between the groups. However, compared with systolic heart failure patients, diastolic heart failure patients were more likely to be hospitalized due to noncardiovascular causes (adjusted HR = 1.38; 95% CI, 1.02–1.88).

Conclusions. Older adults with diastolic heart failure had lower risk of all-cause mortality and heart failure-related hospitalizations, but higher risk of noncardiovascular hospitalization.

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