title: Heart failure cohort in Singapore with defined criteria: clinical characteristics and prognosis in a multi-ethnic hospital-based cohort in Singapore.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are limited data on heart failure (HF) cohorts with objective clinical definition of HF. Many observational HF studies were based on discharge diagnosis codes, making them subjective. Many did not have contemporaneous left ventricular function assessment. This study was done to evaluate the characteristics and one-year prognosis of a single centre multi-ethnic Asian inpatient HF cohort, with these limitations addressed, with the aim of yielding a more accurate picture of true HF.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was an observational prospective study. Patients who fulfilled the modified Framingham criteria for clinical HF and study inclusion criteria of serum creatinine level less than 267 micromol/L, serum albumin level greater than 28 g/L, and a contemporaneous trans-thoracic echocardiography (TTE) study were enrolled. TTE studies ordered were attempted within 72 hours.
  
  
  RESULTS
  173 patients were enrolled into the study. TTE was done within 72 hours of admission for 86.1 percent (n = 149) of the participants. Diastolic HF constituted 22.0 percent of the cohort. The mean age of the participants was 68.7 (standard deviation, 12.0) years. The prevalence of elderly patients, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and ischaemic cardiomyopathy were high. The one-year mortality rate was 20.8 percent (n = 36). The one-year death or readmission for any cause rate was 69.4 percent (n = 120). The mean time in hospital for any cause within the one year was 11.8 +/- 17.9 days. Ethnicity had prognostic implications. Being elderly, having elevated random blood glucose or serum creatinine levels were associated with a worse prognosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With strict methodology, HF is truly a disease of the elderly, with significant one-year mortality and morbidity consequences. Prognostic characteristics are reviewed.
authors: Division of Cardiology, Changi General Hospital, Singapore 529889. gerard_leong@cgh.com.sg
authors: K T G
authors: KT
authors: Leong
authors: P P
authors: PP
authors: Goh
authors: B C
authors: BC
authors: Chang
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Lingamanaicker
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology; D013318:Stroke Volume; D015996:Survival Rate