Hypochloraemia following admission to hospital with heart failure is common and associated with an increased risk of readmission or death: a report from OPERA-HF.

AIMS: Hypochloraemia is common in patients hospitalized with heart failure (HF) and associated with a high risk of adverse outcomes during admission and following discharge. We assessed the significance of changes in serum chloride concentrations in relation to serum sodium and bicarbonate concentrations during admission in a cohort of 1002 consecutive patients admitted with HF and enrolled into an observational study based at a single tertiary centre in the UK. METHODS AND RESULTS: Hypochloraemia (<96 mmol/L), hyponatraemia (<135 mmol/L), and metabolic alkalosis (bicarbonate >32 mmol/L) were defined by local laboratory reference ranges. Outcomes assessed were all-cause mortality, all-cause mortality or all-cause readmission, and all-cause mortality or HF readmission. Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to investigate associations with outcome. During a median follow-up of 856 days (interquartile range 272-1416), discharge hypochloraemia, regardless of serum sodium, or bicarbonate levels was associated with greater all-cause mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 1.44, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.15-1.79; P = 0.001], all-cause mortality or all-cause readmission (HR 1.26, 95% CI 1.04-1.53; P = 0.02), and all-cause mortality or HF readmission (HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.14-1.74; P = 0.002) after multivariable adjustment. Patients with concurrent hypochloraemia and natraemia had lower haemoglobin and haematocrit, suggesting congestion; those with hypochloraemia and normal sodium levels had more metabolic alkalosis, suggesting decongestion. CONCLUSION: Hypochloraemia is common at discharge after a hospitalization for HF and is associated with worse outcome subsequently. It is an easily measured clinical variables that is associated with morbidity or mortality of any cause.

The effect of automated oxygen control on clinical outcomes in preterm infants: a pre- and post-implementation cohort study.

Several studies demonstrated an increase in time spent within target range when automated oxygen control (AOC) is used. However the effect on clinical outcome remains unclear. We compared clinical outcomes of preterm infants born before and after implementation of AOC as standard of care. In a retrospective pre-post implementation cohort study of outcomes for infants of 24-29 weeks gestational age receiving respiratory support before (2012-2015) and after (2015-2018) implementation of AOC as standard of care were compared. Outcomes of interest were mortality and complications of prematurity, number of ventilation days, and length of stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). A total of 588 infants were included (293 pre- vs 295 in the post-implementation cohort), with similar gestational age (27.8 weeks pre- vs 27.6 weeks post-implementation), birth weight (1033 grams vs 1035 grams) and other baseline characteristics. Mortality and rate of prematurity complications were not different between the groups. Length of stay in NICU was not different, but duration of invasive ventilation was shorter in infants who received AOC (6.4 ± 10.1 vs 4.7 ± 8.3, p = 0.029).Conclusion: In this pre-post comparison, the implementation of AOC did not lead to a change in mortality or morbidity during admission. What is Known: • Prolonged and intermittent oxygen saturation deviations are associated with mortality and prematurity-related morbidities. • Automated oxygen controllers can increase the time spent within oxygen saturation target range. What is New: • Implementation of automated oxygen control as standard of care did not lead to a change in mortality or morbidity during admission. • In the period after implementation of automated oxygen control, there was a shift toward more non-invasive ventilation.

Added value of frailty and social support in predicting risk of 30-day unplanned re-admission or death for patients with heart failure: An analysis from OPERA-HF.

BACKGROUND: Models for predicting the outcome of patients hospitalized for heart failure (HF) rarely take a holistic view. We assessed the ability of measures of frailty and social support in addition to demographic, clinical, imaging and laboratory variables to predict short-term outcome for patients discharged after a hospitalization for HF. METHODS: OPERA-HF is a prospective observational cohort, enrolling patients hospitalized for HF in a single center in Hull, UK. Variables were combined in a logistic regression model after multiple imputation of missing data to predict the composite outcome of death or readmission at 30 days. Comparisons were made to a model using clinical variables alone. The discriminative performance of each model was internally validated with bootstrap re-sampling. RESULTS: 1094 patients were included (mean age 77 [interquartile range 68-83] years; 40% women; 56% with moderate to severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction) of whom 213 (19%) had an unplanned re-admission and 60 (5%) died within 30 days. For the composite outcome, a model containing clinical variables alone had an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.68 [95% CI 0.64-0.72]. Adding marital status, support from family and measures of physical frailty increased the AUC (p < 0.05) to 0.70 [95% CI 0.66-0.74]. CONCLUSIONS: Measures of physical frailty and social support improve prediction of 30-day outcome after an admission for HF but predicting near-term events remains imperfect. Further external validation and improvement of the model is required.

The effect of implementing an automated oxygen control on oxygen saturation in preterm infants.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of implementing automated oxygen control as routine care in maintaining oxygen saturation (SpO2) within target range in preterm infants. METHODS: Infants <30 weeks gestation in Leiden University Medical Centre before and after the implementation of automated oxygen control were compared. The percentage of time spent with SpO2 within and outside the target range (90-95%) was calculated. SpO2 values were collected every minute and included for analysis when infants received extra oxygen. RESULTS: In a period of 9 months, 42 preterm infants (21 manual, 21 automated) were studied. In the automated period, the median (IQR) time spent with SpO2 within target range increased (manual vs automated: 48.4 (41.5-56.4)% vs 61.9 (48.5-72.3)%; p<0.01) and time SpO2 >95% decreased (41.9 (30.6-49.4)% vs 19.3 (11.5-24.5)%; p<0.001). The time SpO2<90% increased (8.6 (7.2-11.7)% vs 15.1 (14.0-21.1)%; p<0.0001), while SpO2<80% was similar (1.1 (0.4-1.7)% vs 0.9 (0.5-2.1)%; ns). CONCLUSIONS: During oxygen therapy, preterm infants spent more time within the SpO2 target range after implementation of automated oxygen control, with a significant reduction in hyperoxaemia, but not hypoxaemia.

Depression as an independent prognostic factor for all-cause mortality after a hospital admission for worsening heart failure.

BACKGROUND: Depression is associated with increased mortality amongst patients with chronic heart failure (HF). Whether depression is an independent predictor of outcome in patients admitted for worsening of HF is unclear. METHODS: OPERA-HF is an observational study enrolling patients hospitalized with worsening HF. Depression was assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D) questionnaire. Comorbidity was assessed by the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used to estimate the association between depression and all-cause mortality. RESULTS: Of 242 patients who completed the HADS-D questionnaire, 153, 54 and 35 patients had no (score 0-7), mild (score 8-10) or moderate-to-severe (score 11-21) depression, respectively. During follow-up, 35 patients died, with a median time follow-up of 360days amongst survivors (interquartile range, IQR 217-574days). In univariable analysis, moderate-to-severe depression was associated with an increased risk of death (HR: 4.9; 95% CI: 2.3 to 10.2; P<0.001) compared to no depression. Moderate-to-severe depression also predicted all-cause mortality after controlling for age, CCI score, NYHA class IV, NT-proBNP and treatment with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, beta-blocker and diuretics (HR: 3.0; 95% CI: 1.3 to 7.0; P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Depression is strongly associated with an adverse outcome in the year following discharge after an admission to hospital for worsening HF. The association is only partly explained by the severity of HF or comorbidity. Further research is required to demonstrate whether recognition and treatment of depression improves patient outcomes.

Depression and anxiety as predictors of mortality among heart failure patients: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Several studies suggest that psychological factors are associated with negative outcomes and in particular higher mortality rates among heart failure (HF) patients. We aimed to evaluate the effect sizes of depression and anxiety on all-cause mortality in HF patients. We conducted a systematic review according to the PRISMA methodology. We searched for studies on depression or anxiety effects on all-cause mortality among HF patients published up to June 2015. A number of 26 and 6 articles met inclusion criteria for depression (total 80,627 patients) and anxiety (total 17,214 patients), respectively. The effect estimates were pooled using random-effect meta-analysis. Depression has significant and moderately heterogeneous effect on all-cause mortality (HR = 1.57; 95%CI 1.30-1.89, p < 0.001); adjustment for confounders led to a similar effect estimate (HR = 1.40; 95%CI 1.22-1.60; p < 0.001). Larger studies and higher study prevalence of depression were associated with smaller effect size. The effect of anxiety on mortality outcome was small and not conclusive given the low number of studies (n = 6) (HR = 1.02; 95% CI 1.00-1.04, p < 0.05). This systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that depression is an important and independent predictor of all-cause mortality among HF patients, while anxiety does not appear to have a strong effect. Further research is recommended toward the detection and treatment of depression.