Early-treatment group had significantly lower in-hospital mortality even after adjustment
WEDNESDAY, June 21, 2017 (HealthDay News) — For patients with acute heart failure, early treatment with loop diuretics is associated with lower in-hospital mortality, according to a study published online June 19 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Yuya Matsue, M.D., Ph.D., from Kameda Medical Center in Japan, and colleagues conducted a prospective multicenter observational cohort study involving patients with acute heart failure admitted through the emergency department. The authors examined the correlation between time to diuretic treatment (door-to-furosemide [D2F] time) and clinical outcome.
The researchers found that the median D2F time was 90 minutes among the 1,291 patients treated with intravenous furosemide within 24 hours of emergency department arrival; 37.3 percent of patients were classified as the early-treatment group (D2F time of <60 minutes). Compared with the non-early-treatment group, these patients were more likely to arrive by ambulance and had more signs of congestion. The early-treatment group had significantly lower in-hospital mortality (2.3 versus 6.0 percent). Earlier treatment remained significantly correlated with lower in-hospital mortality in multivariate analysis (odds ratio, 0.39).
“In this prospective multicenter, observational cohort study of patients presenting at the emergency department for acute heart failure, early treatment with intravenous loop diuretics was associated with lower in-hospital mortality,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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