HF survival risk score developed

Researchers have developed a risk score for elderly patients hospitalized with heart failure.Writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers write that their risk score is "based on factors readily available at the time of admission and provides a reliable estimate of prognosis".Bao Huynh et al. followed a cohort of 282 elderly (mean ± SD age, 79.2 ± 6.1 years) patients with heart failure for up to 14 years after enrollment in a prospective randomized multidisciplinary disease management trial conducted from 1990 through 1994.Of the 282 HF patients, 95% died in the 14 years after enrollment, with a median survival of 894 days. The researchers identified seven variables that were independent predictors of shorter survival time: older age (hazard ratio [HR]=1.14 per 5 years), serum sodium levels less than 135 mEq/l (HR=1.67), coronary artery disease (HR=1.51), dementia (HR=2.02), peripheral vascular disease (HR=1.74), systolic blood pressure (HR=0.95 per 10 mmHg), and serum urea nitrogen (HR=1.20 per 10 mg/dl). One-year mortality rates among patients with 0 to 1 (n = 89), 2 to 3 (n = 153), and 4 or more (n = 37) risk factors were 9.0%, 22.2%, and 73.0%, respectively (P<.001)....