Risk of Death High in Diabetics with Heart Failure

Danish cardiologists report that diabetes is a strong independent risk factor for death in patients hospitalized with heart failure. This is particularly true for women.

Danish cardiologists report that diabetes is a strong independent risk factor for death in patients hospitalized with heart failure. This is particularly true for women. “Diabetes is common in heart failure patients, but information on the prognostic effect of diabetes is sparse,” Dr. Ida Gustafsson from Frederiksberg University Hospital in Copenhagen and colleagues note in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology. “Our study shows that efforts to prevent development of cardiovascular disease, in particular heart failure, in diabetic patients should be optimized,” Gustafsson told Reuters Health, “and diabetic patients hospitalized for heart failure should receive special attention.” Gustafsson and colleagues examined the impact of diabetes on long-term mortality in 5,491 consecutive patients who were hospitalized with new or worsening heart failure. Nine hundred patients (16 percent) had diabetes, 41 percent of whom were female. During five to eight years of follow up, 84 percent of the diabetic patients died compared with 70 percent of the non-diabetic patients. After addition analysis, they found that diabetes increased the overall risk of death by 50 percent. In diabetic women hospitalized with heart failure, however, the risk of death was increased by 70 percent compared with a 40-percent increase in diabetic men. “Clearly, heart failure requiring hospitalization is a very serious condition in all patients with diabetes,” Gustafsson said. The diabetes-gender interaction is “surprising,” she added, “and the explanation for it is not clear, and should be investigated in future studies.” (Source: The Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Reuters Health: Megan Rauscher: MedLine Plus: March 2004.)