Background:
Sarcopenia is associated with poor prognosis in chronic heart failure. Fat-free mass index (FFMI) is an indicator of resting energy expenditure and has been used for the clinical diagnosis of sarcopenia. However, the prognostic impact of sarcopenia diagnosed by FFMI remains to be elucidated in patients admitted with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) and preserved LVEF (HFpEF), relating to gender.
Methods:
Patients' data were extracted from The Prospective mUlticenteR obServational stUdy of patIenTs with Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (PURSUIT-HFpEF) study, which is a prospective multicenter observational registry for ADHF patients with LVEF ≥50% in Osaka. We studied 621 patients who survived to discharge (men, n=281 and women, n=340). Fat-free mass (FFM) was estimated by the formula [FFM (kg) = 7.38 + 0.02908 х urinary creatinine (mg/day)] and normalized by the square of the patient’s height in meters to calculate FFMI at discharge. Sarcopenia was defined as FFMI <17 kg/m2 in men and <15 kg/m2 in women. The endpoint was all-cause death.
Results:
During a follow-up period of 1.5±0.8 yrs, 102 patients died (men, n=46 and women, n=56). At multivariate Cox analysis, FFMI was significantly associated with the mortality independently of age, estimated glomerular filtration rate, NT-proBNP and LVEF in both men (p=0.0155) and women (p=0.0223). Patients with sarcopenia had a significantly higher risk of all-cause death than those without sarcopenia in both genders (Figure).
Conclusions:
In this multicenter study, sarcopenia diagnosed by FFMI was shown to be associated with poor clinical outcome in HFpEF patients admitted with ADHF in both genders.