Thrombocytopenia Linked to Poor Outcomes in Patients Admitted With Heart Failure

Thrombocytopenia is associated with worse outcomes among hospitalized patients with heart failure (HF), according to study results presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2023 conference, held from March 4 to 6, 2023, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The cross-sectional study used data from the Nationwide Readmission Database for 2019 to assess whether thrombocytopenia is associated with worse outcomes in patients admitted with HF. Participants were aged older than 18 years and were being treated for HF during the index admission.

A total of 1,195,994 discharges with a primary diagnosis of HF were identified, and thrombocytopenia occurred in 5.3% of cases. Patients with thrombocytopenia (38% women) had a mean age of 73 years vs 71 years in those without thrombocytopenia (48% women).

Thrombocytopenia was associated with AIDS, alcohol use, autoimmune diseases, malnutrition, malignancy, deficiency anemias, chronic liver disease, and sepsis (P <.0001). Patients with thrombocytopenia had a significantly greater incidence of inpatient mortality during index admission (5.8% vs 2.6%, P <.001), length of stay (mean, 8 days vs 5.5 days; P <.001), and all-cause 30-day readmission rates (24% vs 22%, P <.001), as well as greater inpatient mortality on readmission (2.3% vs 1.3%, P <.001), compared with those without thrombocytopenia.

Thrombocytopenia was still associated with greater inpatient mortality vs not having thrombocytopenia (odds ratio, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.44-1.63), after adjustment for age, sex, AMI, coronary artery disease, sepsis, acute respiratory failure, malignancy, depression, dementia, acute encephalopathy, peptic ulcer disease, alcohol use, valvular diseases, autoimmune diseases, and chronic liver, renal, thyroid, and lung diseases.