Anemia in new-onset congestive heart failure inpatients admitted for acute decompensation

Background: Anemia may have important deleterious effects on patients with heart failure. We investigated the presence and causes of anemia among patients admitted because of new-onset congestive heart failure. The prognostic value of anemia was also evaluated. Methods: We evaluated the presence of anemia, which was defined as hemoglobin concentrations lower than 13 g/dl in men and lower than 12 g/dl in women. One-year mortality and hospital readmission rates were also studied. Results: A total of 103 patients were included in the study. Their mean age was 78.5 years and 53% were women. Mean hemoglobin levels were 12.4 g/l. Forty-four patients (43%) had anemia at the time of hospital admission, 34 of them had true anemia and 10 spurious anemia caused by hemodilution. Patients taking preadmission angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors had more severe anemia than those not taking them (p < 0.01). The presence of anemia was not associated with an increase in mortality (p = 0.3) or in readmission rates (p = 0.1) after 1 year of follow-up. Conclusions: Anemia is frequent in new-onset heart failure patients admitted for acute decompensation. However, the presence of anemia does not seem to be related to an increase in mortality or readmission in this small cohort. (C) 2006 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.