Clinical, biological, echocardiographic and therapeutic determinants of the length of hospital stay of patients with acute heart failure.

Hypothesis: The length of hospital stay (LOS) is a unanimously accepted measure of risk and treatment efficacy for in-patients.

Purpose: Our aim was to identify the parameters with predictive value for the LOS of patients with acute heart failure (AHF).

Methods: We analyzed 125 patients consecutively admitted to our clinic with a slight male predominance (54.4%) and a mean age of 71.54 years. Patients were divided into groups according to the clinical form at presentation and left ventricular function. Mean LOS was of 8.74 days.

Results: Patients with LVEF<30% had a significantly higher LOS compared to those with LVEF>30% (F(2)=6.54, p<0.05). The same difference was discovered for those who received inotropic support (p<0.001), i.v. loop diuretic>140mg (p<0.001) as well as for those with QRS>160ms (p<0.05) or LBBB. The linear regression equation exposed a single significant statistical model indicating that the need for vasopressor amines, mean diuretic dose and PAAT<90msec explain 56% of the variance of LOS F(3.46)=20.55, p<0.001. The highest contribution to the model was achieved by the need for vasopressor amines (β=0.66), with a unique contribution of 42% to the variance of the number of days of stay. The mean dose of diuretic had β=0.27 and a unique contribution to the model of 7.2%, followed by PAAT<90 msec with β=0.26 and a unique contribution to the model of 7%.

Conclusions: LOS is influenced by numerous parameters, some specific to certain clinical forms of AHF while others are independent, which is why evaluations on larger groups of patients are further needed.