TUESDAY, Nov. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Patients admitted to the hospital with heart failure often also have low systolic blood pressure (SBP), which is an independent predictor of mortality and morbidity, researchers report in the Nov. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Mihai Gheorghiade, M.D., of Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues conducted a study of 48,612 heart failure patients aged 18 or older admitted to 259 hospitals across the United States. The patients were divided into quartiles according to SBP -- less than 120, 120-139, 140-161 and greater than 161 mm Hg. In all, 41,267 patients with left ventricular function were assessed, of whom 21,149 (51 percent) had preserved left ventricular function. A subgroup of 5,791 (10 percent of the cohort) were followed up post-discharge between 60 and 90 days.
Women and black patients were more likely to have higher SBP, and half of the patients had SBP above 140 mm Hg at admission. In-hospital and post-discharge mortality rates were higher among those with low SBP.
"Low SBP (less than 120 mm Hg) at hospital admission identifies patients who have a poor prognosis despite medical therapy. These findings may have important therapeutic implications because characteristics and outcomes differ greatly among patients with heart failure with varying SBP," the authors conclude.
GlaxoSmithKline funded the registry data used in the study and reviewed the manuscript before publication.
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