Objective:

To describe the clinical and haemodynamic profiles of patients admitted to hospital due to acute heart failure.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted on patients aged 18 years or older with a diagnosis of acute heart failure admitted to a high complexity hospital in Cali, Colombia, during a 7-month period. Sociodemographic, clinical and haemodynamic information of the cardiac failure was recorded on admission, as well as hospital stay and mortality. The quantitative variables are described as means or medians, and the categorical variables as absolute value and percentages. Frequency tables were made, and a graph made of the percentages of patients admitted, according to the clinical and haemodynamic profile of the acute heart failure.

Results:

The study included as total of 99 patients with 143 episodes of acute heart failure. Half of the patients were male, and the median age was 66 years (range 21 to 97 years). The majority (60%) were of African descent and 14.14% were Mestizos. The most common clinical profiles were decompensated heart failure (72.46%), acute pulmonary edema (10.14%), and heart failure associated with acute coronary syndrome in 6.52%. The haemodynamic profiles were ‘‘warm and dry’’ in 10.87%, ‘‘warm and wet’’ in 55.07%, ‘‘cold and wet’’ in 28.26%, and ‘‘cold and dry’’ in 5.8%.

Conclusions:

Decompensated acute heart failure is the most common clinical presentation profile in the population studied, with two-thirds of all cases. The most frequent haemodynamic profile was ‘‘warm and wet’’, results that agree with those observed in local studies and in international registers.

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