Chronic kidney disease: an independent risk factor of all-cause mortality for elderly Chinese patients with chronic heart failure

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prognostic value of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in elderly Chinese patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). METHODS: The study consisted of 327 elderly patients with CHF. All-cause mortality was chosen as an endpoint over the median follow-up period of 345 days. Cox regression analysis was used to identify the risk factors of mortality. RESULTS: The median age of the entire cohort was 85 years (60–100 years). The mortality for 168 elderly patients with CHF and CKD (51.4% of entire cohort) was 39.9% (67 deaths), which was higher than the mortality for CHF patients without CKD [25.2% (40/159 deaths)] and the mortality for entire cohort with CHF [32.7% (107/327 deaths)]. The Cox regression analysis showed that old age [hazard ratio (HR): 1.033; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.004–1.064], CKD (HR: 1.705; 95% CI: 1.132–2.567), CHF New York Heart Association (NYHA) class IV (HR: 1.913; 95% CI: 1.284–2.851), acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (HR: 1.696; 95% CI: 1.036–2.777), elevated resting heart rate (HR: 1.021; 95% CI: 1.009–1.033), and decreased plasma albumin (HR: 0.883; 95% CI: 0.843–0.925) were independent risk factors of mortality for elderly patients with CHF. CONCLUSIONS: CKD was an independent risk factor of mortality for elderly Chinese patients with CHF.