The role of frailty in advanced HF and cardiac transplantation

Nicole K Bart; Alice Powell; Peter S Macdonald

doi:10.3389/fcvm.2023.1082371

The role of frailty in advanced HF and cardiac transplantation

Front Cardiovasc Med. 2023 Apr 3:10:1082371. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2023.1082371. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Nicole K Bart^{1

2

3

4}, Alice Powell^{5

6}, Peter S Macdonald^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Heart Transplant Program, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
² School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ School of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁴ Infiltrative Cardiomyopathy Laboratory, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁵ Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
⁶ Department of Neurology, Macquarie University Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Abstract

Frailty is a complex, multi-system condition often associated with multimorbidity. It has become an important prognostic maker across a range of conditions and is particularly relevant in patients with cardiovascular disease. Frailty encompasses a range of domains including, physical, psychological, and social. There are currently a range of validated tools available to measure frailty. It is an especially important measurement in advanced HF, because frailty occurs in up to 50% of HF patients and is potentially reversible with therapies such as mechanical circulatory support and transplantation. Moreover, frailty is dynamic, and therefore serial measurements are important. This review delves into the measurement of frailty, mechanisms, and its role in different cardiovascular cohorts. Understanding frailty will help determine patients that will benefit from therapies, as well as prognosticate outcomes.

Keywords: ageing; cardiac disease; frailty; heart failure; robustness; superAging; transplantation.

Publication types

Review