Common Factors Cause 60% Of Hospital Visits For Heart Failure

Boston (dbTechno) - According to a team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, the most common reasons for the hospitalization for heart failure are pneumonia, irregular heart beat, and obstructed blood flow.

Researchers analyzed data from a heart failure patient registry, the Organized Program to Initiate Lifesaving Treatment in Hospitalized Patients with Heart Failure (OPTIMIZE-HF).

They found that the registry, between 2003 and 2004, had 49,000 patients enrolled from nearly 260 hospitals in the U.S.

The most common factor causing heart failure was pneumonia or respiratory problems, which caused 15.3% of heart failures. Coming in second was obstructed blood flow to the heart at 14.7%. This was followed by irregular heart beat at 13.5%.

Following those top three, uncontrolled hypertension or blood pressure was at 10.7%, while lack of taking medication came in causing 8.9% of heart failures.

The author of the study, Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, the UCLA Eliot Corday Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine and Science, as well as director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center stated “Over 60% of hospitalized heart failure patients had at least one of these precipitating factors at hospital admission.”

The study has been published in the April 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.