Association of diuretic treatment at hospital discharge in patients with heart failure with all-cause short- and long-term mortality: A propensity score-matched analysis from SwedeHF.
Department of Internal Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital/Mölndal, Mölndal, Sweden; Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sahlgrenska University Hospital/Östra, Gothenburg, Sweden. Electronic address: par.paren@vgregion.se.
Diuretics are recommended for treating congestive symptoms in heart failure (HF). The short- and long-term prognostic effects of diuretic treatment at hospital discharge have not been studied in randomized clinical trials or in a Western world population. We aimed to determine the association of diuretic treatment at discharge with the risk of short-and long-term all-cause mortality in real-life patients in Sweden with HF irrespective of EF.
From a Swedish nationwide HF register 26,218 patients discharged from hospital were included in the present study. A total of 87% of patients were treated with and 13% were not treated with diuretics at hospital discharge. In a 1:1 propensity score-matched cohort of 6564 patients, the association of diuretic treatment at hospital discharge with the risk of 90-day all-cause mortality was neutral (HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.74-1.07, p=0.21) whereas the risk of long-term all-cause mortality (median follow-up: 2.85years) was increased (HR 1.15, 95% CI 1.06-1.24, p