The risk of venous thromboembolism in patients with heart failure

Aim. To quantify the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in hospitalized patients, depending on the severity of heart failure (HF). Material and methods. Current cross-sectional study included 132 patients hospitalized in the cardiology department in 2019. All participants were divided into 2 groups: group 1 (n=48) — patients with class I-II HF; group 2 (n=84) — patients with class III-IV HF. A total quantitative assessment of the VTE risk was carried out according to the Caprini risk scoring method. Results. All patients hospitalized in the cardiology department, regardless of HF class, had a moderate and high risk of VTE and required prophylactic anticoagulation. High VTE risk had 85% of patients with class I-II HF; 97,6% — patients with a class III-IV HF. Mean score of ≥10 was observed in every fifth patient. Atrial fibrillation requiring long-term anticoagulant therapy was observed in 51,5% of patients. There were no absolute contraindications for parenteral prophylactic anticoagulation at the time of hospitalization in the study population. Conclusion. All patients admitted to the cardiology department had a moderate and high according to the Caprini risk score, regardless of HF class. More than half of the patients had indications for long-term anticoagulant therapy. The remaining patients required the parenteral prophylactic anticoagulation.