What is your patient's cognitive profile? Three distinct subgroups of cognitive function in persons with heart failure.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine whether patients with heart failure (HF) have distinct profiles of cognitive impairment. BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment is common in HF. Recent work found three cognitive profiles in HF patients-(1) intact, (2) impaired, and (3) memory-impaired. We examined the reproducibility of these profiles and clarified mechanisms. METHODS: HF patients (68.6 ± 9.7 years; N=329) completed neuropsychological testing. Composite scores were created for cognitive domains and used to identify clusters via agglomerative-hierarchical cluster analysis. RESULTS: A 3-cluster solution emerged. Cluster 1 (n=109) had intact cognition. Cluster 2 (n=123) was impaired across all domains. Cluster 3 (n=97) had impaired memory only. Clusters differed in age, race, education, SES, IQ, BMI, and diabetes (ps ≤ .026) but not in mood, anxiety, cardiovascular, or pulmonary disease (ps ≥ .118). CONCLUSIONS: We replicated three distinct patterns of cognitive function in persons with HF. These profiles may help providers offer tailored care to patients with different cognitive and clinical needs.