Anemia in patients with abnormal heart rate linked to increased mortality: Study

Germany: The presence of anemia in patients with ventricular tachyarrhythmias is associated with increased mortality at 2.5 years, researchers report in The American Journal of Cardiology. However, at the same time duration, anemia presence was not associated with the composite arrhythmic endpoint.

 LVEF <35%, CKD, cardiogenic shock, male gender, CPR, and age were revealed as predictors of adverse prognosis at 2.5 years. 

 Michael Behnes, University of Heidelberg, Germany, and colleagues aimed to evaluate the prognostic impact of anemia in patients presenting with ventricular tachyarrhythmias in a longitudinal, observational, registry-based, monocentric cohort study. 

The researchers included retrospectively and consecutive patients presenting with ventricular tachyarrhythmias on admission from 2002 to 2016. They compared anemic patients (hemoglobin levels <12.0 g/dl) with non–anemic patients (hemoglobin levels ≥12.0 g/dl).

The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality at 2.5 years. Secondary endpoints were cardiac death at 24 hours, all-cause mortality at index hospitalization, and the composite endpoint of cardiac death at 24 hours, recurrent ventricular tachyarrhythmias, and appropriate ICD therapies at 2.5 years.

Of the total 2,184 consecutive patients, 30% were anemic and 70% non–anemic. 

"Our findings revealed that anemic patients presenting with ventricular tachyarrhythmias were associated with increased long-term mortality at 2.5 years but not with the composite arrhythmic endpoint at 2.5 years," concluded the authors. 

Reference:

"Effect of Anemia on the Prognosis of Patients with Ventricular Tachyarrhythmias," is published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

DOI: https://www.ajconline.org/article/S0002-9149(21)00524-5/fulltext