Sex differences in in-hospital mortality in acute decompensated heart failure with reduced and preserved ejection fraction

Background There are no sex-specific survival comparisons between patients with heart failure (HF) with reduced and those with preserved ejection fraction. Large registries noting women have better survival than men combined HF patients with reduced and preserved EF. Other registries that compared patients with reduced and preserved EF did not analyze their data by sex. We sought to evaluate sex/EF differences in mortality and risk factors for survival in hospitalized patients with HF. Methods We included hospitals fully participating in Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure that admitted HF patients with reduced (EF <40%) or preserved (EF >= 50%) EF. The primary end point was in-hospital mortality. Multivariate generalized estimating equation logistic models were used to compute odds ratios accounting for hospital clustering. Results The study cohort consisted of 51,428 patients with EF <40% (36% women, 64% men) and 37,699 patients with EF >= 50% (65% women, 35% men). Women compared with men with reduced and preserved EF were older and more likely to have hypertension, depression, or valvular heart disease and less likely to have coronary artery disease or peripheral vascular disease. There were no sex differences in in-hospital mortality (EF <40%, 2.69% women vs 2.89% men, P = .20; EF >= 50%, 2.61% women vs 2.62% men, P = .96), and risk factors such as age, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, and history of renal failure/dialysis were highly predictive of death for each sex/EF subgroup. Conclusions In a large, multicenter registry, we found that despite differences in baseline characteristics, women and men with reduced and preserved EF have similar in-hospital mortality and risk factors predicting death. (Am Heart J 2012;163:430-437.e3.)