The course of chronic heart failure, depending on patients’ body composition

Background. Chronic heart failure (CHF) has remained an urgent problem in medicine for many years, and nutritional status in such patients plays an important role in maintaining functional status. It is important if the patient has sarcopenic obesity, a cardiovascular disease risk factor.

Aim. To determine the clinical status of CHF patients and its dependence on a set of indicators that determine body composition.

Materials and methods. Patients were surveyed using the Sarcopenia Fast questionnaire to assess body composition; hand dynamometry, a 4 m walking speed test, and bioelectrical impedance analysis were performed. A scale for assessing the clinical status of a patient with CHF and its functional class and a 6-minute walk test were used to determine the clinical status of a patient with CHF.

Results. The study showed statistically significant differences in the prevalence of functional classes and ejection fraction in patients. In the groups of patients with obesity, the most common were values typical for CHF with a preserved ejection fraction. In Group 4 patients, the clinical status score and the 6-minute walk test were lower than in patients with normal body weight and muscle strength and worse than in Groups 2 and 5.

Conclusion. The differences between the indicators in the group of patients with sarcopenic obesity highlight the differences in the CHF course in patients with different nutritional status, namely the more severe disease course.