Prognostic value of metabolic syndrome in patients with heart failure and malnutrition

Malnutrition is severely associated with worst prognosis of patients with heart failure (HF). Malnourished patients with the metabolic syndrome (MS) can result in a double burden of malnutrition. We aimed to investigate the impact of the MS on clinical outcomes in malnourished HF patients.

We examined 529 HF patients at risk of malnutrition with a mean age of (66 ± 10) years and 78% (415) were male. Nutritional status defined primarily by the prognostic nutritional index (PNI), with PNI < 40 being defined as malnutrition. The follow-up endpoint was cardiovascular death or all-cause death.

During the 36-month follow-up, survival rates for cardiovascular and all-cause death were significantly lower in the MS group than in the non-MS group (log-rank P < 0.01). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models showed that MS was independently associated with cardiovascular death (HR:1.759, 95%CI:1.351–2.291, p < 0.001) and all-cause death (HR:1.326, 95%CI:1.041–1.689, p = 0.022) in malnourished patients with HF. MS significantly increased the predictive value of cardiovascular death (AUC:0.669, 95%CI:0.623–0.715, p < 0.001) and all-cause death (AUC:0.636, 95%CI:0.585–0.687, p < 0.001) on the basis of established risk factors. The predictive effect of MS on cardiovascular death was independent of sex, age, functional class and left ventricular ejection fraction.

In malnourished patients with HF, MS is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. MS significantly enhance the predictive value for clinical events in patients.