Background: Acute heart failure (AHF) is a life-threatening condition associated with poor prognosis.
Aim: To investigate the long term prognosis and identify prognostic factors among patients who were discharged after an episode of cardiogenic pulmonary oedema.
Methods: We enrolled 84 patients (M: 56%, n = 47) who were discharged with cardiogenic pulmonary oedema as a diagnosis. Clinical, biochemical and echocardiographic variables were collected and analysed. The completeness of two- and five-year follow-up was 100% and 96%, respectively.
Results: The median (IQR) age was 74 years (64-81), left ventricular ejection fraction was 35% (27-45), blood pressure on admission was 140/90 mm Hg (115-180/70-100), estimated glomerular filtration rate was 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 (45-73). Forty per cent (n = 34) of the patients had a history of atrial fibrillation (AF), however, AF was directly involved with pulmonary oedema only in 4% (n = 3) of the cases. Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) accounted for 34% (n = 29) of all the causes of pulmonary oedema and was associated with a better two-year prognosis compared to other causes of pulmonary oedema (p = 0.018). Two- and five-year mortality was 45% (n = 38) and 72% (n = 58), respectively. Co-morbidities were common. Ischaemic heart disease and arterial hypertension were present in 83% and 70% of the patients, respectively. Multivariable analysis identified increased left ventricular mass (RR 3.609, 95% CI 1.235-10.547, p = 0.017) and treatment with long-acting vasodilator drugs (LAVDs) (RR 4.881, 95% CI 1.618-14.727, p = 0.004) as independent negative prognostic factors, whereas in-hospital therapy with beta-blockers created a distinctly protective effect (RR 0.123, 95% CI 0.033-0.457, p = 0.002) in the two-year follow-up. Five-year mortality was independently associated with older age (RR 1.08, 95% CI 1.02-1.14, p = 0.005) and treatment with LAVDs (RR 6.4, 95% CI 1.47-28.14, p = 0.012), while percutaneous coronary intervention (RR 0.17, 95% CI 0.05-0.58, p = 0.004) significantly decreased the risk.
Conclusions: AHF is a heterogeneous syndrome with a very high remote mortality. LAVDs administered during the hospital stay as well as older age on admission correlate with higher long-term overall mortality. In the age of percutaneous coronary intervention, AMI aetiology of pulmonary oedema is no longer a negative prognostic factor for the long-term prognosis.