Epidemiological, clinical e therapeutic profile of heart failure in a tertiary hospital.
BACKGROUND
Heart failure is a complex syndrome with multiple risk factors involved in its genesis, making its prevention and management difficult to achieve.


OBJECTIVE
To identify the main etiologies and risk factors in heart failure; to compare clinical and demographic characteristics of patients according to the etiology; analyze whether the treatment is according to that recommended by the Brazilian guidelines.


METHODS
Retrospective, descriptive and observational study, carried out at Hospital das Clínicas of Universidade Federal de Goiás. The patients were divided in four groups, according to the etiology, for comparison: chagasic cardiomyopathy, hypertensive cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy and others, ischemic cardiomyopathy. The Chi-square and Fisher's Exact tests, ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used in the analysis of the groups and types of treatment.


RESULTS
A total of 144 patients' files were analyzed; the patients' mean age was 61 ± 15 years and 54.2% of them were males. Chagasic cardiomyopathy was the main etiology (41%). Arterial hypertension (48.6%), anemia (22.9%), coronary disease (19.4%), dyslipidemia (17.3%) and diabetes (16.6%) were the main risk factors. There was a higher prevalence of female individuals among the hypertensive patients (p=0.044) as well as a higher frequency of pulmonary rales (p < 0.01). Heart rate was lower among chagasic patients (p < 0.001). The most often prescribed medications were diuretics (81.2%), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-receptor blockers (77.7%), beta-blockers (45.8%), spironolactone (35.4%), digitalis (30.5%) and vasodilators (8.3%).


CONCLUSIONS
Chagasic cardiomyopathy was the main cause of heart failure. No significant clinical differences were observed among patients from the four etiologic groups.
Nogueira
Patrícia Resende
PR
Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brasil. prnogueirafisio@gmail.com
Rassi
Salvador
S
Corrêa
Krislainy de Sousa
Kde S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000145:classification / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000592:standards; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult
D002317:Cardiovascular Agents