Prognostic value of ghrelin in elderly patients with chronic heart failure / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the value of ghrelin on predicting prognosis in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) after hospital discharge.Methods Totally 145 patients withCHF (age≥60 years,83 males and 62 females) were divided into 3 subgroups by New York Heart Association classification (NYHA)class Ⅱ (n=48),class Ⅲ(n=57) and class Ⅳ(n =40).According to the basic diseases,the CHF group was divided into five subgroups.All patients were followed up for about 2 years.The study included 55 healthy control subjects (30 males and 25 females).Results Plasma ghrelin level was lower in CHF cases (1.66±0.28) μg/L than in control subjects (2.27±0.26) μg/L (t 3.77,P＜0.01).The ghrelin level in NYHA Ⅱ(1.85±0.13) μg/L were higher than in NYHA Ⅲ (1.56±0.28) μg/L,the latter were higher than in NYHA Ⅳ (1.27±0.24) μg/L (P＜0.05).The plasma ghrelin level of patients after treatment (1.98±0.25) μg/L was increased compared with that of before treatment (1.66±0.28) μg/L (P＜0.05).No significant difference was found among the five basic disease groups (P＞0.05).During the follow up periods of (637±97)days,plasma ghrelin level was decreased in patients with cardiovascular event (1.26±0.38) μg/L than in patients without cardiovascular event (1.86±0.34) μg/L.The plasma ghrelin was negatively correlated with left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) and left ventricular ejection fraction (P＜0.05).Conclusions The plasma ghrelin in elderly patients with CHF is decreased than in healthy adults,and its level is lower in patients with severe heart failure.The plasma ghrelin is a predictor of cardiovascular event and death in elderly patients with CHF.