The health outcomes of inflammation and obesity in patients with heart failure.
Zyad T Saleh, Terry A Lennie, Muhammad Darawad and 4 others
PMID 32507469WHAT IT FOUND
Among 415 patients with heart failure, high inflammation was linked to shorter time to first hospitalization or death.
Obesity alone was not. Obese patients with high inflammation had more hospitalizations or deaths than non-obese patients with low inflammation.
Key findings
01High inflammation, not obesity alone, was associated with shorter time to first hospitalization or death.
02After adjustment, obese/high inflammation and non-obese/high inflammation had nearly 1.7 times higher risk of an event than non-obese/low inflammation.
03When NT-proBNP levels were added, obese/high inflammation remained associated with higher risk, but non-obese/high inflammation was no longer associated.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was an observational study, so it cannot show that obesity or inflammation caused hospitalization or death. BMI and inflammation were measured only at baseline, and weight or inflammation could have changed during follow-up. Patients were grouped using a median sTNFR1 cut point of 1804 pg/ml, and there are no standardized normal values for this marker. The four-group design did not test whether BMI and inflammation each independently predicted event-free survival. The sample was mostly non-Hispanic white, so results may not generalize to other groups. NYHA functional classes were collapsed because some classes had too few patients.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that obesity itself caused worse survival or that weight loss would improve outcomes. The study was observational, and obese and non-obese patients with low inflammation had similar event-free survival.