Motivation:

To describe and analise the clinical features of heart failure in the elderly, as well as the influence in mortality according to their left ventricular ejection fraction.

Method:

Ecological multigroup descriptive study in 115 patients who had been hospitalised due to acute heart failure with a one year follow-up period. Depending on their left ventricular ejection fraction, patients were divided into two groups: preserved or non preserved left ventricular ejection fraction, if they showed ≥ 50% or <50%, respectively. Mortality rate one year after discharge was registered and Cox regression model was used for survival analysis.

Results:

Average age was 83.9 years and 40% were men. The left ventricular ejection fraction was preserved in 76 (66%) of patients. 35 (30.4%) died after one year. The preserved left ventricular ejection fraction group consisted of women predominantly, and they had more comorbidities, such as high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, atrial fibrillation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, whereas their incidence of myocardial ischemia was lower. Despite mortality being higher in the non preserved left ventricular ejection fraction group, statistical significance was not reached (38.5% vs. 26.3%; p = 0.180).

Conclusions:

Mortality rate after one year of old patients with heart failure is high, and they also have a higher proportion of preserved left ventricular ejection fraction, which in turn is associated to a higher number of comorbidities and a higher tendency to survival after one year in comparison to non preserved left ventricular ejection fraction.

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