Heart ’s pumping function is not an indicator of heart failure survival rates

FINDINGSContrary to popular practice, a measure of the heart ’s pumping function known as “left ventricular ejection fraction” is not associated with the long-term outcomes of hospitalized heart failure patients, a UCLA-led study of Medicare patients has found. Hospitalized heart failure patients in all age groups within the study and with all levels of ejection fraction had significantly lower rates of survival after five years and a higher risk of re-hospitalization than people in the United States without heart failure. Better treatments for heart failure and new ways of predicting patient outcomes are needed, researchers concluded. BACKGROUNDHeart failure occurs when heart muscle is weakened and cannot pump enough blood to meet the body ’s needs. Ejection fraction is measured by ultrasound and shows how well the heart is pumping. Doctors use ejection fraction to guide treatment of heart failure patients and estimate their likelihood of re-hospitalization and survival. This is the first study to use national data to specifically c ategorize heart failure by three distinct ejection fraction subgroups.METHODResearchers used national data from the American Heart Association ’s Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure program and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and included 39,982 patients from 254 hospitals admitted for heart failure from 2005 to 2009. The study categorized the patients by three distinct ejection fraction subgroups: normal, borde...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news