A quarter of patients develop heart failure before four years have passed since a myocardial infarction, according to a Dutch study.
Dr Johannes Gho of the University Medical Centre Utrecht, The Netherlands, and colleagues investigated the risk. They used details on 24,745 adult patients who had a heart attack between 1998 and 2010 and had no history of heart failure.
According to electronic health records, hospital admissions and national registries, over the next 3.7 years, on average, 24% of the patients developed heart failure.
The risk was higher among those who were older, living in more deprived environments, and who had another serious condition such as diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and peripheral arterial disease. Every ten year rise in age was associated with a 45% increased risk, the researchers say.
Findings were presented yesterday (24 May) at the 3rd World Congress on Acute Heart Failure, part of Heart Failure 2016, held in Florence, Italy, from 21 to 24 May.
Dr Gho says: "Around one in four patients developed heart failure within four years of a first myocardial infarction.
He adds: "Research studying incidence of heart failure following myocardial infarction is limited and mainly stems from the thrombolytic era, when drugs were used to dissolve blood clots. Today the preferred treatment for acute myocardial infarction is percutaneous coronary intervention where a stent is used to open the blocked artery."
Furthermore, "Previous research looking at all cause heart failure, not only after myocardial infarction, has found similar risk factors."
Dr Gho concluded: "Identifying these prognostic factors in heart attack patients could help us predict their risk of developing heart failure and allow us to give treatments to reduce that risk."
Dr Gho presented the abstract ‘Heart failure following myocardial infarction: a cohort study of incidence and prognostic factors in 24 745 patients using linked electronic records’ during Moderated Poster Session 6 – Comorbidities which took place on 24 May 2016.
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