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.