Heart Failure Is Associated with Increased Risk of Long-Term Venous Thromboembolism

Background and Objectives@#Venous thromboembolism (VTE), consisting of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is highly prevalent in in-hospital HF patients and contributes to worse prognoses. However, the risk of VTE in out-patients with HF in long-term period is controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between HF and the risk of VTE in a long-term follow-up duration. @*Methods@#We searched for studies investigating the risk of VTE, PE, and DVT in patients with HF before April 15, 2020, in PubMed, MEDLINE, and Embase databases. Cohort studies and post hoc analysis of RCTs were eligible for inclusion if they reported relative risk of VTE, DVT or PE in patients with HF in more than 3-month follow-up period. @*Results@#We identified 31 studies that enrolled over 530,641 HF patients. Overall, patients with HF were associated with an increased risk of VTE (risk ratio [RR]=1.57, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.34–1.84) and PE (RR=2.00, 95% CI=1.38–2.89). However, the risk of DVT was not significantly increased in HF patients (RR=1.33, 95% CI=0.67–2.63). Subgroup analysis showed that patients with chronic HF (RR=1.54, 95% CI=1.32–1.80) had a higher risk of VTE than those with acute HF (RR=0.95, 95% CI=0.68–1.32). @*Conclusions@#In conclusion, HF was an independent risk for VTE and PE but not DVT in a longterm follow-up period. Patients with chronic HF were prone to suffer from VTE than acute HF.

Heart Failure Is Associated with Increased Risk of Long-Term Venous Thromboembolism

Background and Objectives@#Venous thromboembolism (VTE), consisting of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is highly prevalent in in-hospital HF patients and contributes to worse prognoses. However, the risk of VTE in out-patients with HF in long-term period is controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between HF and the risk of VTE in a long-term follow-up duration. @*Methods@#We searched for studies investigating the risk of VTE, PE, and DVT in patients with HF before April 15, 2020, in PubMed, MEDLINE, and Embase databases. Cohort studies and post hoc analysis of RCTs were eligible for inclusion if they reported relative risk of VTE, DVT or PE in patients with HF in more than 3-month follow-up period. @*Results@#We identified 31 studies that enrolled over 530,641 HF patients. Overall, patients with HF were associated with an increased risk of VTE (risk ratio [RR]=1.57, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.34–1.84) and PE (RR=2.00, 95% CI=1.38–2.89). However, the risk of DVT was not significantly increased in HF patients (RR=1.33, 95% CI=0.67–2.63). Subgroup analysis showed that patients with chronic HF (RR=1.54, 95% CI=1.32–1.80) had a higher risk of VTE than those with acute HF (RR=0.95, 95% CI=0.68–1.32). @*Conclusions@#In conclusion, HF was an independent risk for VTE and PE but not DVT in a longterm follow-up period. Patients with chronic HF were prone to suffer from VTE than acute HF.

Clinical features of severe or critical ill patients with COVID-19 / 南方医科大学学报

OBJECTIVE@#To analyze the clinical features of severe or critical ill adult patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).@*METHODS@#The clinical data of 75 patients with severe or critical COVID-19 in Honghu People's Hospital from January to March in 2020 were collected.@*RESULTS@#Of the 75 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, 41 were male (54.67%) and 34 were female (45.33%) with a mean age of 67.53 ±12.37 years; 43 patients had severe and 32 had critical COVID-19, and 49.3% of the patients had underlying diseases. The main clinical manifestations included fever (78.67%) and coughing (70.67%). Compared with the severe patients, the critically ill patients had higher proportions of patients over 60 years old with elevated white blood cell count, increased prothrombin time, and higher levels of hsCRP, PCT, D-dimer, ALT, LDH, cTnI and NT-proBNP. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that an age over 60 years, leukocytosis, hs-CRP elevation, prolonged prothrombin time, and increased levels of D-dimer, NT-proBNP and cTnI were associated with severe COVID-19. Multivariate logistic regression showed that an age over 60 years (OR=8.165, 95% : 1.483-45.576, =0.017), prolonged prothrombin time (OR=7.516, 95% : 2.568-21.998, =0.006) and elevated NT-proBNP (OR=6.194, 95% : 1.305-29.404, =0.022) were independent risk factors for critical type of COVID-19.@*CONCLUSIONS@#An age over 60 years, a prolonged prothrombin time and elevated NT-proBNP level are important clinical features of critically ill patients with COVID-19, and can be deemed as early warning signals for critical conditions of the disease.