Objective: To evaluate systemically the prevalence and prognostic values of liver function abnormalities in patients with chronic systolic heart failure (HF) have not been systematically evaluated.
Methods: A total of 16 681 hospitalized patients with a diagnosis of chronic systolic HF and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < 50% were recruited from 12 hospitals in Hubei Province. All patients were followed up by telephone contacts. And they were divided into the death and survival groups according to the follow-up results.
Results: Over a median follow-up period of 3 years, 6453 (38.69%) patients died. The prevalence of liver function abnormality was 71.94% (12 001/16 681). The elevations of direct bilirubin, γ-glutamyl-transferase and alanine aminotransferase were the most common findings accounting for 33.37% (4863/14 574), 32.51% (4337/13 341) and 30.12% (5024/16 681) respectively. The abnormality of alkaline phosphatase was rare and its increase and decrease accounted for 3.82% (474/12 397) and 4.51% (559/12 397) respectively. The prevalence of low albumin and total bilirubin elevation was 23.24% (3408/14 664) and 19.37% (3231/16 681). And high direct bilirubin (HR 1.264, 95%CI 1.103 - 1.423; P = 0.02), high total bilirubin (HR 1.126, 95%CI 1.019 - 1.234; P = 0.02) and low albumin (HR 0.889, 95%CI 0.794 - 0.889; P < 0.01) were determined as the independent risk factors of total mortality. There were the correlations of LVEF with direct bilirubin (r = -0.235, P < 0.01), total bilirubin (r = -0.209, P < 0.01), albumin (r = 0.107, P < 0.01) and right ventricular end-diastolic diameter (RVDD) with direct bilirubin (r = 0.149, P < 0.01), total bilirubin (r = 0.154, P < 0.01) and albumin (r = -0.086, P < 0.01).
Conclusion: The prevalence of liver function abnormalities is high in patients with chronic systolic HF. Low albumin, high direct bilirubin and high total bilirubin increase their total mortalities. Low LVEF and high RVDD are positively correlated with a high prevalence of liver function abnormalities.