Distinct Comorbidity Clusters in Patients With Acute Heart Failure: Data From RELAX-AHF-2

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Clinical Research
• Public Health

Background:

• Multimorbidity is common in acute heart failure (AHF) patients.
• Comorbidities in AHF often present in specific, identifiable patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify distinct multimorbidity subtypes in AHF patients.
• To investigate the association between these subtypes and clinical outcomes.
• To validate findings in a separate patient cohort.

Main Methods:

• Latent class analysis was used to classify 6,545 patients from the RELAX-AHF-2 trial into multimorbidity groups.
• Clinical outcomes were examined across identified subgroups.
• Findings were validated using data from the 1,161-patient RELAX-AHF trial.

Main Results:

• Five multimorbidity groups were identified: diabetes/CKD, ischemic, elderly/AF, metabolic, and young.
• Patients in the diabetes/CKD, elderly/AF, and metabolic groups had higher composite outcome rates, mainly due to rehospitalization.
• Treatment with serelaxin modified outcomes, notably reducing all-cause mortality in the young group.

Conclusions:

• Comorbidities in AHF patients naturally form distinct clusters with varying clinical outcomes.
• The specific combination of comorbidities significantly impacts adverse events and treatment response in AHF.
• These findings underscore the importance of personalized approaches in managing AHF patients with multimorbidity.