Association of Chronic Renal Insufficiency with Inhospital Outcomes in Primary Heart Failure Hospitalizations (Insights from the National Inpatient Sample 2004 to 2018)

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major co-morbidity in patients with heart failure (HF). There are limited contemporary data characterizing the clinical profile, inhospital outcomes, and resource use in patients hospitalized for HF with co-morbid CKD. We utilized a nationally representative population to address the knowledge gap. We examined the National Inpatient Sample 2004 to 2018 database to study the co-morbid profile, in‐hospital mortality, clinical resource utilization, healthcare cost, and length of stay (LOS) in primary adult HF hospitalizations stratified by presence versus absence of a diagnosis codes of CKD. There were a total of 16,050,301 adult hospitalizations with a primary HF diagnosis from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2018. Of these, 428,175 (33.81%) had CKD; 1,110,778 (6.92%) had end-stage kidney disease (ESKD); and 9,511,348 (59.25%) had no diagnosis of CKD. Patients with hospitalizations for HF with ESKD were younger (mean age 65.4 years) compared with those without ESKD. In multivariable analysis, those with CKD had higher odds of inhospital mortality (2.82% vs 3.57%, adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.30, confidence interval [CI] 1.28 to 1.26, p <0.001), cardiogenic shock (1.01% vs 1.79% aOR 2.00, CI 1.95 to 2.05, p <0.001), and the need for mechanical circulatory support (0.4% vs 0.5%, aOR 1.51, 1.44 to 1.57, p <0.001) compared with those without CKD. In multivariable analysis, those with ESKD had higher odds of inhospital mortality (2.82% vs 3.84%, aOR 2.07, CI 2.01 to 2.12, p <0.001), need for invasive mechanical ventilation use (2.04% vs 3.94%, aOR 1.79, CI 1.75 to 1.84, p <0.001), cardiac arrest (0.72% vs 1.54%, aOR 2.09, CI 2.00 to 2.17, p <0.001), longer LOS (Adjusted mean difference 1.48, 1.44 to 1.53, p <0.001) and higher inflation-adjusted cost (Adjusted mean difference 3,411.63, CI 3,238.35 to 3,584.91, p <0.001) compared with those without CKD. CKD and ESKD affected about 40.7% of all primary HF hospitalizations from 2004 to 2018. The inhospital mortality, clinical complications, LOS, and inflation-adjusted cost were higher in hospitalized patients with ESKD compared with patients with and without CKD. In addition, compared with those without CKD, hospitalized patients with CKD had higher inhospital mortality, clinical complications, LOS, and inflation-adjusted cost compared with patients with no diagnosis of CKD.