HF in Diabetes: Long-Term Prognosis has Improved

Acute heart failure (HF) is associated with worse long-term outcomes among individuals with diabetes vs those without diabetes, according to a recent study. However, the overall prognosis for acute HF has improved over time in both patients with and without diabetes.

For their study, the researchers evaluated 1810 patients age 18 years or older who had been admitted to the Intensive Coronary Care Unit with acute HF between 1985 and 2008. A total of 384 (21%) patients had diabetes.
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Outcomes of the study included all-cause mortality, heart transplantation, and left ventricular assist device implantation after 10 years.

Results indicated that outcomes at 10 years were significantly worse among patients with diabetes (87%) compared with those without diabetes (76%). However, the researchers noted that patients with or without diabetes who had been admitted within the last decade of the study had significantly lower 10-year event rates vs those who had been admitted during the first 2 decades of the study.

“The long-term outcome of patients with diabetes is worse than that of patients without diabetes,” the researchers concluded.

“However, the long-term prognosis improved over time in both groups. Importantly, this improvement in long-term prognosis was comparable in patients with and without diabetes. Despite these promising results, more awareness for diabetes in patients with acute HF is necessary and there is still need for optimal treatment of diabetes in acute HF.”

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

van den Berge JC, Constantinescu AA, Boiten HJ, van Domburg RT, Deckers JW, Akkerhuis KM. Short- and long-term prognosis of patients with acute heart failure with and without diabetes: changes over the last three decades [Published online October 5, 2017]. Diabetes Care. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc17-0544.