European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Heart failure is a complex clinical syndrome resulting from structural and functional impairment of ventricular filling or ejection of blood, which in turn leads to the cardinal clinical symptoms of dyspnea and fatigue and signs of HF, namely edema and rales^.[1] According to the World Health Organization (WHO), anemia is defined as hemoglobin (Hb) levels <12.0 g/dL in women and <13.0 g/dL in men.^[2] Anemia in HF decreases the oxygen delivery to the tissues leading to dyspnea and fatigue which worsens the quality of lives of the patients. The guidelines of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association and the European Society of Cardiology both recognize anemia as an important comorbidity in patients with HF. ^[3,4] Management recommendations focus on determining the underlying etiology and subsequent treatment, although, often no specific cause is found. In this study, we evaluated the patients of heart failure for anemia.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To study anemia in hospitalized patients of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.
METHOD AND MATERIAL: This is a hospital based cross sectional study of 140 patients of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction admitted in the Department of General Medicine, NHL Medical college, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The material for this study was formed by adult patients admitted in the hospital between October 2019 to 2021 fulfilling the inclusion and the exclusion criteria.
RESULT: Out of 140 patients admitted heart with reduced ejection fraction, 58 (41.3%) had anemia with 59% being male. The mean age of patients in the anemic group was 58.5±9.95 years and iron deficiency anemia (53.44%) was the most common cause of anemia in patients of HFrEF with mean Hb being 8.42±1.62 g/dl. We found an inverse relationship between NYHA class grading and mean Hb but no correlation between EF severity and mean Hb.
CONCLUSION: Anemia is a common comorbid condition in patients with HFrEF and has been associated with poor clinical outcome. In this study, nutritional anemia is the most common cause, hence by providing adequate nutrition and awareness we can reduce the burden and can attenuate worse outcomes in patients of heart failure.