Clinical Significance of Get With the Guidelines-Heart Failure Risk Score in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure After Hospitalization

Background-The Get With the Guidelines-Heart Failure (GWTG-HF) risk score was developed using American Heart Association GWTG-HF program data and predicts in-hospital mortality in patients with acute heart failure (HF). We aimed to clarify the prognostic impacts of the GWTG-HF risk score in patients with HF after discharge. Methods and Results-We examined the GWTG-HF score in 1452 patients with HF, who were admitted to our hospital and discharged after treatment, by calculating 7 predetermined variables. We divided all subjects into 3 groups according to the GWTG-HF risk score (low, moderate, and high score groups). The plasma B-type natriuretic peptide level significantly increased with increasing GWTG-HF risk score severity (median values of B-type natriuretic peptide: 167.0 in low, 260.7 in moderate, and 418.2 pg/mL in high score groups). We followed up all subjects after discharge, and there were 347 (23.9%) all-cause deaths and 407 (28.0%) cardiac events in follow-up periods. A Kaplan-Meier survival curve demonstrated that event rates of all-cause death and cardiovascular events, including worsening HF and cardiac death, significantly increased with increasing GWTG-HF risk score severity in all subjects, and also in 749 patients with HF with preserved ejection fraction (ejection fraction >= 50%) and 703 patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (ejection fraction < 50%) patients. The multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analysis demonstrated that the GWTG-HF risk score was one of the significant predictors of all-cause mortality and cardiac events (all-cause mortality: hazard ratio, 1.537, 95% confidence interval, 1.172-2.023; cardiac events: hazard ratio, 1.584, 95% confidence interval, 1.344-1.860, per 10-point increase of GWTG-HF score). Conclusions-The GWTG-HF risk score is a useful multivariable score model for several years after hospitalization in patients with HF in a Japanese population.