Obese Fair Better with Acute Heart Failure

A new study has found that obese patients fair better than lean ones when hospitalized for acute heart failure (HF).

Researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA, USA) utilized data on over 100,000 acute heart failure patient episodes, taken from the U.S. national acute decompensated heart failure registry (ADHERE). The results showed that for patients hospitalized with acute HF, when categorized by weight, in-hospital mortality rate was 6.3% for underweight, 4.6% for healthy weight, 3.4% for overweight, and 2.4% for obese patients. For every five-unit increase in body mass index (BMI), the odds of risk-adjusted mortality fell by 10%. The finding held when adjusted for age, sex, blood urea nitrogen, blood pressure, and additional prognostic factors. The study appears in the January 2007 edition of the American Heart Journal.

"The study suggests that overweight and obese patients may have a greater metabolic reserve to call upon during an acute heart failure episode, which may lessen hospital mortality risk,” said lead author Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, director of the Ahmanson-California (UCLA) cardiomyopathy center.

Obesity is a known risk factor for developing heart disease and HF and every effort should be made to avoid it, but once heart failure has manifested, an observed phenomenon called the "obesity paradox” is observed. According to the researchers, the finding suggests that nutritional/metabolic support may have therapeutic benefit in specific patients hospitalized with HF.




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