Background: Congestive heart failure is a common disease in hospitalized patients with frequent readmissions often leading
to death. The incidence of heart failure increases with age and entails high medical costs. Previous studies have identified
several predictors of mortality in heart failure patients, but there have been few studies of this problem in Thailand.
Objective: The present study evaluated predictors of in-hospital mortality in heart failure patients at Rajavithi Hospital.
Median hospital length of stay and factors that affected duration of hospitalisation in heart failure patients were evaluated as
secondary endpoints.
Material and Method: This was a retrospective study performed of heart failure patients admitted between 2009 and 2015. Subjects were categorized into death and non-death groups, and baseline characteristics and laboratory data were collected and analyzed in order to identify mortality predictors.
Results: A total of 208 patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) were enrolled from the medical records of Rajavithi
Hospital. Of these, 68 patients died and 140 patients survived to discharge. The mean age + SD was 66.28+13.30 years and
55.3% were female. The mean BMI + SD was 24.32+6.80 kg/m2 and the median length of stay was 7.50 (IQR 4 to 15) days. History of smoking and underlying disease in the two groups did not differ significantly. Age, LVEF, use of spironolactone, use of digoxin, SBP, serum BUN and albumin were significantly different. However, multivariate analysis found that only age, SBP, and serum albumin were associated with mortality with odds ratios of (95% CI) = 1.034 (1.002 to 1.067), 0.983 (0.967 to 0.998) and 0.353 (0.169 to 0.740) respectively. Factors influencing length of hospital stay were female gender, NYHA class IV and serum creatinine levels with odds ratios of (95% CI) = 1.802 (1.004 to 3.234), 8.601 (2.258 to 32.765) and 1.307 (1.023 to 1.670) respectively.
Conclusion: Age, SBP and serum albumin were predictors of in-hospital mortality from heart failure. Median duration of
hospitalization was 7.5 days and factors that influenced length of stay were female gender, NYHA class IV, and serum
creatinine levels.

Keywords: Predictors, Congestive heart failure, Mortality, In-patients