Association of anemia and long-term survival in patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Krasuski, Richard A

Hart, Stephen A

Smith, Brad

Wang, Andrew

Harrison, J Kevin

Bashore, Thomas M

Netherlands

2015-12-03T17:48:19Z

2011-08-04

BACKGROUND: Anemia is a marker of worsened clinical outcome in patients with heart failure from left ventricular dysfunction. Pulmonary hypertension often results in right ventricular dysfunction. Accordingly we sought to examine the association of hemoglobin levels and long-term all-cause mortality in a cohort of patients with pulmonary hypertension. METHODS: Baseline demographic information, clinical characteristics and fasting blood work were obtained in a cohort of 145 patients with pulmonary hypertension referred for pulmonary vasodilator testing. Data was retrospectively analyzed with Cox-proportional hazards analysis. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics of the cohort included age (mean±SD) 55.8±14.6 years, 75% women, 50% with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension, mean pulmonary artery pressure 46.1±14.2 mm Hg and arterial O(2) saturation 91±6 %. The most commonly utilized pulmonary hypertension specific therapeutic agents in descending order of frequency were epoprostenol (27%), sildenafil (21%), bosentan (17%), and treprostinil (6%). Over a median follow-up of 2.1 years, there were 39 deaths (26.9%). Patients who died had significantly lower hemoglobin levels than those survived (12.2±2.3 vs. 13.7±2.0, p<0.001). After adjustment for known predictors of death and pulmonary hypertension etiology, anemic patients were 3.3 times more likely to die than non-anemic patients (95% CI [1.43-7.51], p=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Hemoglobin levels closely parallel survival in pulmonary hypertension. Modification of anemia in this disorder could alter the clinical course and calls for further research in this area.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20472313

S0167-5273(10)00269-X

1874-1754

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/11027

eng

Elsevier BV

Int J Cardiol

10.1016/j.ijcard.2010.04.038

Adult

Aged

Anemia

Cohort Studies

Female

Follow-Up Studies

Hemoglobins

Humans

Hypertension, Pulmonary

Male

Middle Aged

Retrospective Studies

Survival Rate

Survivors

Association of anemia and long-term survival in patients with pulmonary hypertension.

Journal article

Krasuski, Richard A|0000-0003-3150-5215

Wang, Andrew|0000-0001-8729-0933

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20472313

291

295

3

Clinical Science Departments

Duke

Medicine

Medicine, Cardiology

School of Medicine

Published

150