Mortality trends in an ambulatory multidisciplinary heart failure unit from 2001 to 2018

To assess mortality trends at 1 and 3 years from 2001 to 2018 in a real-life cohort of HF outpatients from different etiologies with depressed and preserved LVEF. A total of 2368 consecutive patients with HF (mean age 66.4 +/- 12.9 years, 71% men, 15.4% with preserved LVEF) admitted to a HF clinic from August 2001 to September 2018 were included in the study. Patients were divided into five quintiles (Q) according to the period of admission. Trends for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality from Q1 to Q5 were assessed by linear regression. Patients with LVEF<50% had a progressive decrease in the rates of all-cause and cardiovascular death at 1 year (12.1% in Q1 to 6.5% in Q5, p=0.003; and 8.4% in Q1 to 3.8% in Q5, p=0.007, respectively) and 3 years (30.5% in Q1 to 17.0% in Q5, p=0.003; and 23.9% in Q1 to 9.8% in Q5, p=0.003, respectively). These trends remained significant after adjusting for clinical characteristics and risk. No significant trend in mortality was observed in patients with LVEF >= 50%. In a cohort of real-life ambulatory patients with HF, mortality progressively declined in patients with LVEF<50%, but the same trend was not observed in patients with preserved LVEF.

Automated summary

This study assessed mortality trends in heart failure outpatients over a 17-year period and found that patients with LVEF<50% showed a progressive decrease in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality at 1 and 3 years. These trends remained significant after adjustment, while patients with preserved LVEF did not show significant mortality trends.