Predicting readmission and death after hospital discharge: a comparison of conventional frailty measurement with an electronic health record-based score.

BACKGROUND: frailty measurement may identify patients at risk of decline after hospital discharge, but many measures require specialist review and/or additional testing. OBJECTIVE: to compare validated frailty tools with routine electronic health record (EHR) data at hospital discharge, for associations with readmission or death. DESIGN: observational cohort study. SETTING: hospital ward. SUBJECTS: consented cardiology inpatients ≥70 years old within 24 hours of discharge. METHODS: patients underwent Fried, Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB), PRISMA-7 and Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) assessments. An EHR risk score was derived from the proportion of 31 possible frailty markers present. Electronic follow-up was completed for a primary outcome of 90-day readmission or death. Secondary outcomes were mortality and days alive at home ('home time') at 12 months. RESULTS: in total, 186 patients were included (79 ± 6 years old, 64% males). The primary outcome occurred in 55 (30%) patients. Fried (hazard ratio [HR] 1.47 per standard deviation [SD] increase, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18-1.81, P < 0.001), CFS (HR 1.24 per SD increase, 95% CI 1.01-1.51, P = 0.04) and EHR risk scores (HR 1.35 per SD increase, 95% CI 1.02-1.78, P = 0.04) were independently associated with the primary outcome after adjustment for age, sex and co-morbidity, but the SPPB and PRISMA-7 were not. The EHR risk score was independently associated with mortality and home time at 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: frailty measurement at hospital discharge identifies patients at risk of poorer outcomes. An EHR-based risk score appeared equivalent to validated frailty tools and may be automated to screen patients at scale, but this requires further validation.

Cardiac amyloidosis masquerading as acute coronary syndrome.

A 53-year-old man presented to a district general hospital with chest pain, ECG changes and a small high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I rise. There were no symptoms of heart failure. CT coronary angiography revealed moderate calcific disease and conventional angiography confirmed no flow limitation. Echocardiography showed left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). His blood pressure remained normal throughout his admission. The tertiary centre labelled this as a 'plaque rupture' event but the LVH remained unexplained. Cardiac MRI displayed an unusual pattern of late gadolinium enhancement, which was not classical of amyloid. However, a raised serum free kappa light chain along with the deposition of amyloid on his bone marrow aspirate confirmed the diagnosis of primary AL amyloidosis with cardiac involvement. The patient went on to have chemotherapy and remained stable at 1-year follow-up.