Elevated blood potassium levels predict readmission risk among elderly patients of HF

The key findings of the study were:

1. The sample size was determined a priori, and the total number of elderly HF patients included in this retrospective cohort study was 788. Of these, 20.3% had hypokalemia (K+ 3.5 mmol/L) and 14.7% had hyperkalemia (K+ > 4.7 mmol/L).

2. Patients with hyperkalemia had a shorter time between readmissions within a year, according to a multivariate Cox regression model, with a hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.134. (1.006–1.279).

3. After correction, three models were used to analyze patients with various blood potassium levels.

4. There were significant differences in outcome events between the high potassium group and the low and normal groups, with HRs and their 95% CIs of 1.266 (1.03-1.557), 1.245 (1.01-1.534), and 1.439 (1.142-1.812), respectively.

5. Competing risk models with subgroup analysis that showed that blood potassium levels had a steady effect on outcome events and were unaffected by covariates further illustrated the model's robustness (age, diabetes, sex, chronic kidney disease, high-sensitivity troponin, NT-proBNP, and glomerular filtration rate).

Reference:

Shang, G., Gao, Y., Liu, K., & Wang, X. (2022). Serum potassium in elderly heart failure patients as a predictor of readmission within 1 year. In Heart and Vessels. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00380-022-02192-y