Usefulness of the Combination of In-Hospital Poor Diuretic Response and Systemic Congestion to Predict Future Cardiac Events in Patients With Acute Decompensated Heart Failure

We aimed to (1) investigate the relation between diuretic response (DR) with or without systemic congestion and prognosis and (2) explore the potential predictors of poor DR for risk stratification in patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). We enrolled 186 consecutive patients hospitalized for ADHF. The DR was defined as (body weight at discharge − body weight at admission)/40 mg furosemide or equivalent loop diuretic dose. Systemic congestion on admission was simply evaluated by the presence of leg edema or jugular venous distention. All patients were divided into 4 groups based on the median of DR (−0.50 kg/40 mg) and the status of systemic congestion; GR/C (good DR with systemic congestion, n = 66), GR/N (good DR without systemic congestion, n = 27), PR/C (poor DR with systemic congestion, n = 48); and PR/N (poor DR without systemic congestion, n = 45). The composite outcome was defined as cardiac death and rehospitalization for worsening heart failure. In survival analysis, the cardiac event-free rate in PR/C was significantly lower than that in any other groups (log-rank, p <0.001), and PR/C was an independent predictor of cardiac events (hazard ratio 2.17, p = 0.016). In conclusion, the combination of in-hospital poor DR, characterized by previous ischemic heart disease, and prehospital dose of daily loop diuretics, and systemic congestion provides a risk stratification for future cardiac events in patients with ADHF.