ABSTRACT
Natural history and prognostic factors in chronic congestive heart failure were investigated in 141 patients (100 males and 41 females), aged 58 +/- 14.5 years, who were hospitalized between 1981-1985. Heart failure was due to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy in 79 patients and ischemic heart disease in 62 patients. The following parameters were examined: sex, age, etiology, NYHA functional class, mean arterial blood pressure, heart rate, presence of 3rd heart sound, atrial fibrillation and left ventricular conduction delay, plasma sodium, echocardiographic shortening fraction, and treatment with vasodilators. Mean follow-up was 31 +/- 19 months. Overall survival was 83% at 1 year, 58% at 3 years and 49% at 5 years. No difference in mortality was evident between the two etiological groups, while the data on the cause of death showed a significant difference: sudden death was prevalent in the patients with ischemic disease (50% vs 24%), intractable heart failure predominated in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (69.7% vs 42.8%) (p less than 0.05). The multivariate analysis with the Cox model resulted in a negative prognostic significance of the male sex (p less than 0.02), III and IV NYHA functional class (p less than 0.04), heart rate at rest greater than 85 b/min (p less than 0.002) and the presence of left ventricular conduction delay on standard ECG (p less than 0.001).
