Predicting short-term mortality in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic heart failure: The EAHFE-3D scale

Introduction and objectives: Prognostic scales are needed in acute exacerbation of chronic heart failure to detect early mortality. The objective of this study is to create a prognostic scale (scale EAHFE-3D) to stratify the risk of death the very short term.

Patients and method: We used the EAHFE database, a multipurpose, multicenter registry with prospective follow-up currently including 6,597 patients with acute heart failure attended at 34 Spanish Emergency Departments from 2007 to 2014. The following variables were collected: demographic, personal history, data of acute episode and 3-day mortality. The derivation cohort included patients recruited during 2009 and 2011 EAHFE registry spots (n=3,640). The classifying variable was all-cause 3-day mortality. A prognostic scale (3D-EAHFE scale) with the results of the multivariate analysis based on the weight of the OR was created. The 3D-EAHFE scale was validated using the cohort of patients included in 2014 spot (n=2,957).

Results: A total of 3,640 patients were used in the derivation cohort and 102 (2.8%) died at 3 days. The final scale contained the following variables (maximum 165 points): age≥75 years (30 points), baseline NYHA III-IV (15 points), systolic blood pressure<110mmHg (20 points), room-air oxygen saturation<90% (30 points), hyponatremia (20 points), inotropic or vasopressor treatment (30 points) and need for noninvasive mechanical ventilation (20 points); with a ROC curve of 0.80 (95% CI 0.76-0.84; P<.001). The validation cohort included 2,957 patients (66 died at 3 days, 2.2%), and the scale obtained a ROC curve of 0.76 (95% CI 0.70-0.82; P<.001). The risk groups consisted of very low risk (0-20 points), low risk (21-40 points), intermediate risk (41-60 points), high risk (61-80 points) and very high risk (>80 points), with a mortality (derivation/validation cohorts) of 0/0.5, 0.8/1.0, 2.9/2.8, 5.5/5.8 and 12.7/22.4%, respectively.

Conclusions: EAHFE-3D scale may help to predict the very short term prognosis of patients with acute heart failure in 5 risk groups.