Comparison of hospitalized and ambulatory patients with heart failure in the Czech Republic and Europe. Data from the ESC Heart Failure Long-Term Registry

IntroductionThe ESC Heart Failure Long-Term Registry (ESC-HFLTR) is a prospective observational study which takes place in 211 cardiology centres of 21 European and Mediterranean countries, members of the European Society of Cardiology.AimTo compare basic demographic and clinical characteristics of both, the patients hospitalized for acute heart failure and the patients observed in outpatient clinics for chronic heart failure in the Czech Republic with published European-wide data.MethodsAltogether 692 consecutive patients were included in the Czech part of ESC-HFLTR (5.6% of the whole registry) from May 2011 to April 2013. These patients were either admitted to hospital or examined in the outpatient clinic for HF during one predefined day of the week. The basic characteristics of 160 hospitalized (25.3%) and 532 ambulatory (74.7%) patients were analysed statistically, compared with each other and finally contrasted with available data from the whole ESC-HFLTR.ResultsCzech in-hospital patients were generally older than the ambulatory patients with HF (73 vs. 66 years; p < 0.001) and were less frequently men (62.5 vs. 75.7%). They had also significantly higher incidence of comorbidities. On the contrary, the outpatients underwent more often pacemaker implantation and coronary revascularization than hospitalized patients. The dominant HF aetiology was ischaemic in both groups. The HF with preserved ejection fraction was more frequently represented among the hospitalized HF patients. On the other hand, more ambulatory patients had dilated cardiomyopathy as the primary cause of HF.In comparison with the data from the whole ESC-HFLTR Czech HF patients in both groups had significantly higher body weight, systolic blood pressure and higher incidence of comorbidities. In addition, they had more frequently implanted a pacemaker.ConclusionCzech HF patients had worse cardiovascular risk profile as well as higher incidence of comorbidities compared to the patients from the whole ESC-HFLTR.