Impact of hyperthyroidism on in-hospital outcomes of patients with heart failure

Kunjan Udani; Dveet Patel; Leslie Hart; Vinod Nambudiri

doi:10.1080/20009666.2020.1840739

Impact of hyperthyroidism on in-hospital outcomes of patients with heart failure

J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect. 2021 Jan 26;11(1):158-162. doi: 10.1080/20009666.2020.1840739.

Authors

Kunjan Udani¹, Dveet Patel¹, Leslie Hart², Vinod Nambudiri^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Grand Strand Medical Center, Myrtle Beach, SC, USA.
² Department of Health and Human Performance, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA.
³ Department of Dermatology and Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

Congestive heart failure (CHF) exacerbations are a frequent cause of hospitalization. Thyroid hormones impact myocardial function; elevated levels of thyroxine, as seen in hyperthyroidism (HT), can worsen CHF symptoms. We retrospectively evaluated the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) Enterprise Data Warehouse and examined mortality and length of stay (LOS) in patients hospitalized with CHF with and without a diagnosis of HT. 55,031 patients with CHF were identified. The presence of HT was not significantly associated with mortality (p = 0.24) nor LOS (p = 0.32). A significant difference in the distribution of sex (p = 0.001) and age (p = 0.002) was noted, with a higher percentage of females and a lower median age in patients with HT. There was a significant difference in LOS (p = 0.04) for patients with a cardiovascular comorbidity, who had a mean LOS of 6.33 days versus 5.31 days for patient without HT.

Keywords: Heart failure; clinical decision making; clinical research; hyperthyroidism; length of stay; mortality.

Grants and funding

This research was supported (in whole or in part) by HCA and/or an HCA affiliated entity. The views expressed in this publication represent those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of HCA or any of its affiliated entities.