New onset heart failure — Clinical characteristics and short-term mortality. A RICA (Spanish registry of acute heart failure) study

• New onset heart failure (HF) contributes to a significant proportion of HF episodes.
• Patients admitted by a new-onset HF episode show a different clinical profile.
• Among this group of patients with new-onset HF mid-term survival is similar.

BackgroundHeart failure (HF) is a growing global epidemic. The main study aims is to evaluate the differences between new-onset and chronic-decompensated HF patients. Secondary objectives related only to new-onset HF patients include the role of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and mid-term mortality related risk factorsMethodsWe analyzed 2190 patients hospitalized for acute HF. We compare the 683 patients with a new-onset HF episode with the rest. Restricting the analysis to the new-onset HF patients, we also compare patients with preserved LVEF (EF > 50%) with those with reduced LVEF, and analyze the factors associated with three-month mortality.ResultsA total of 683 (31.2%) patients fulfill the criteria for “new-onset HF”. These patients are older, their HF is more often related to hypertension, show higher blood pressure and heart rate values upon admission, and present with less global and disease-specific comorbidity and better baseline overall functional status. New-onset HF is more often characterized by preserved LVEF, milder baseline NYHA class and lower plasma natriuretic peptide values. After 3 months; 33 (5.2%) new-onset HF patients had died (p < 0.001). Cox multivariate analysis showed a correlation between mortality and older age (hazard ratio – HR – 1.08), higher global comorbidity (HR 1.20) and lesser prescription of beta-blockers at discharge (HR 0.34). LVEF was unrelated to mortality.ConclusionsNew-onset HF patients show a clinical profile different to that of chronic-decompensated patients. For this subset of acute HF patients older age, higher comorbidity and beta-blocker nonprescription predict a higher risk of mid-term post-discharge mortality.