Prevalence and short-term prognosis of heart failure: An in hospital prevalence study

Despite the magnitude of the burden of heart failure, effective new therapies capable of reducing the prevalence, early mortality or rehospitalisation have not been developed over the last decade. The incidence and prevalence estimates of heart failure are unreliable in India because of the lack of surveillance systems to adequately capture relevant data. To ascertain the prevalence & prognosis of hospitalised heart failure patients. The study was conducted in Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, SCB Medical College, Cuttack over a period of 5 years from September 2009 to September 2013. The patients having heart failure were included in the study. The detailed history, clinical findings and investigations were retrieved from the department archives and were studied in detail. Out of 23,987 hospitalised patients heart failure was diagnosed in 2641 (11%) cases. Out of 2641 patients, dilated cardiomyopathy was diagnosed in 34% (900) of cases, valvular heart disease(VHD) in 29.5% (781) cases, coronary artery disease in 18.3% of cases. Other causes include hypertension with left ventricular failure (6.8%), postpartum cardiomyopathy (7%), myocarditis (2.3%) and congenital heart disease (2.1%). The overall in hospital mortality was 14.2% and the mortality among patients with cardiogenic shock was 62.4%. The median hospital stay was 8 days. Heart failure occurs at a younger age in Indians compared to the western countries. The most common etiology is DCM followed by VHD. Since this is a retrospective analysis and has its own limitations, community based heart failure study taking a clue from the present study can be done to achieve invaluable data.