Frailty has been associated with poor outcomes in patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We aimed to assess the accuracy of the Eyeball test for frailty assessment in elderly patients with CVD. This is a prospective study including stable patients ≥75 years old who were followed-up in a cardiology clinic. Frailty assessment was performed separately through the Eyeball test and the Fried test in a blinded way. Cardiologists were asked to rate the frailty status of participants based on their routine clinical assessment and grade frailty on a Fried-type scale (1 to 5, with frailty defined as a score ≥3). Each patient then underwent formal frailty assessment using the Fried test. Included were 300 consecutive patients with a mean age of 81 ± 6 years. Frailty was diagnosed in 109 (36%) and 125 patients (41%) according to the Fried and Eyeball tests, respectively. The Eyeball test demonstrated 86% sensitivity and 82% specificity for the diagnosis of frailty. A receiver operating characteristics curve analysis demonstrated an area under the curve of 0.82 for the diagnosis of frailty. The Eyeball test demonstrated a very high negative predictive value of 90% and a modest positive predictive value of 73% for frailty assessment. Similar results were observed after subgroup analysis according to age and gender. In conclusion, the Eyeball test is an accurate method to rule out frailty in elderly patients with CVD. However, when frailty is suspected based on the Eyeball test, a formal tool such as the Fried test should be used to confirm the diagnosis.
Keywords: Eyeball test; Fried test; cardiovascular disease; elderly patients; frailty.
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