Associations of body mass index and hospital-acquired disability with post-discharge mortality in older patients with acute heart failure.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of hospital-acquired disability (HAD) on all-cause mortality after discharge according to the body mass index (BMI) in older patients with acute decompensated heart failure. METHODS: We included 408 patients aged ≥ 65 years who were hospitalized for acute decompensated heart failure and had undergone an acute phase of cardiac rehabilitation at the Sakakibara Heart Institute between April 2013 and September 2015 (median age: 82 years, interquartile range (IQR): 76-86; 52% male). Patients were divided into three groups based on BMI at hospital admission: underweight (< 18.5 kg/m2), normal weight (18.5 to 25 kg/m2), and overweight (≥ 25 kg/m2). HAD was defined as a decrease of at least five points at discharge compared to before hospitalization according to the Barthel Index. RESULTS: The median follow-up period was 475 (IQR: 292-730) days, and all-cause mortality during the follow-up period was 84 deaths (21%). According to multivariate Cox regression analysis, being underweight (HR: 1.941, 95% CI: 1.134-3.321,P = 0.016) or overweight (HR: 0.371, 95% CI: 0.171-0.803,P = 0.012), with normal BMI as the reference, and HAD (HR: 1.857, 95% CI: 1.062-3.250,P = 0.030) were independently associated with all-cause mortality. Patients with HAD exhibited a significantly lower cumulative survival rate in the underweight group (P = 0.001) and tended to have a lower cumulative survival rate in the normal weight group (P = 0.072). HAD was not significantly associated with cumulative survival in the overweight group (P = 0.392). CONCLUSIONS: BMI and HAD independently predicted all-cause mortality after discharge in older patients with acute decompensated heart failure. Furthermore, HAD was significantly associated with higher all-cause mortality after discharge, especially in the underweight group.

Physical function examination at intensive care unit as predictive indicators for hospitalization-associated disability in patients after cardiovascular surgery.

BACKGROUND: Following cardiovascular surgery, patients are at high risk of requiring systemic management in the intensive care unit (ICU), resulting in hospitalization-associated disability (HAD). Predicting the risk of HAD during the postoperative course is important to prevent susceptibility to cardiovascular events. Assessment of physical function during the ICU stay may be useful as a prediction index but has not been established. METHODS: This prospective observational study conducted at a high-volume cardiovascular center included 236 patients (34% female; median age, 73 years) who required an ICU stay of at least 72 hours after surgery and underwent postoperative rehabilitation. HAD was defined as a decrease in the discharge Barthel index (BI) score of at least 5 points relative to the preadmission BI score. Physical Function ICU Test-scored (PFIT-s), Functional Status Score for the ICU (FSS-ICU), and Medical Research Council (MRC)-sumscore were used to assess physical function at ICU discharge. RESULTS: HAD occurred in 58 (24.6%) of the 236 patients following cardiovascular surgery. The cut-off points for HAD were 7.5 points for the PFIT-s (sensitivity 0.80, specificity 0.59), 24.5 points for the FSS-ICU (sensitivity 0.57, specificity 0.66), and 59.5 points for the MRC-sumscore (sensitivity 0.93, specificity 0.66). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed a PFIT-s of >7.5 points (odds ratio [OR], 4.84; 95% CI, 2.39-9.80; p < 0.001) and an MRC-sumscore of >59.5 points (OR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.22-4.87; p = 0.012) as independent associated factors. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that the PFIT-s and MRC-sumscore at ICU discharge may be helpful as a predictive indicator for HAD in patients having undergone major cardiovascular surgery.

Psoas Muscle Volume and Attenuation are Better Predictors than Muscle Area for Hospital Readmission in Older Patients after Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine whether the psoas muscle volume (PMV) and its muscle attenuation (MA) are associated with hospital readmission after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). METHOD: We included 113 older patients with aortic stenosis who underwent TAVI at Sakakibara Heart Institute (mean age 85 ± 5 years, 69% women). We measured PMV and psoas muscle area (PMA) as well as total muscle area (TMA) at the third lumbar vertebra using preoperative computed tomography (CT) images. The crude values of the PMV, PMA, and TMA were normalized by dividing by height squared. RESULTS: The median follow-up period was 724 days (interquartile range: 528-730 days), and there were 25 all-cause readmissions during the follow-up period (22% of all patients). In the multivariate Cox regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, and EuroSCORE II, the PMV and its MA and crude PMA were significantly associated with all-cause readmission [HR: 0.957 (0.930-0.985), p = 0.003, HR: 0.927 (0.862-0.997), p = 0.040], whereas the PMA and TMA and each MA were not (all p > 0.05). The groups with low PMV and MA had significantly higher incidences of all-cause readmission than that with high PMV and MA (log-rank test: p = 0.011). CONCLUSION: PMV and its MA measured from preoperative CT images were independent predictors of all-cause readmission in TAVI patients.