Clustering Based on Comorbidities in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure: An Illustration of Clinical Diversity

Figures

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  Figure 1. Frequencies of objectively identified comorbidities. The total number of subjects with a present comorbidity always refers to the number of subjects with known information concerning the respective comorbidity; this is shown in Figure 3 . FFMI, fat‐free mass index.

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  Figure 2. Number of comorbidities per patient*. *of 420 patients with all comorbidity information available.

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  Figure 3. The frequencies of objectively identified comorbidities in patients with chronic heart failure with each of the 12 selected specific comorbidities. In subjects in whom the comorbidity mentioned in the row is present, the prevalence of the other comorbidities mentioned in the column is shown. Note that the information about the presence or absence of a comorbidity was not known for all patients. Therefore, the total number of subjects with a present comorbidity always refers to the number of subjects with known information concerning the respective comorbidity. For interpretation, the table is coloured: blue, less than 20% prevalence; green, 20–40% prevalence; yellow, 40–60% prevalence; and red, more than 60% prevalence. FFMI, fat‐free mass index.

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  Figure 4. Distribution of various continuous markers of comorbidities in clusters. These values were used to define the severity degrees as noted in the Methods section.

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  Figure 5. Clusters based on extra‐cardiac features in 603 patients with HF. Viscovery SOMine 7.2 placed all subjects on a specific position on the map based on their profile of comorbidities. The more subjects resemble in terms of their comorbidities, the closer they are on the map. When looking at individual comorbidities or characteristics, subjects are coloured red if the comorbidity is present and blue when it is absent. Males are coloured red in the corresponding map picture, females blue. In this way, the maps can be interpreted. Viscovery SOMine 7.2 identified five different clusters of patients with HF with a significant different profile of comorbidities (95% confidence interval). The cluster borders are drawn as thick lines on the map pictures. Definition of clusters: C1 = least comorbidities, C2 = cachectic/implosive, C3 = metabolic diabetes, C4 = metabolic renal, C5 = psychologic. FFMI, fat‐free mass index.