Pneumonia is a respiratory infection in one or both lungs leading to inflammation in alveoli. Significant attention has been on pneumonia and the subsequent risk of cardiovascular outcomes. This study aims to investigate the risk of heart failure associated with community-acquired pneumonia.
This cohort study included a total of 4,988 adults (mean age 55 years, 53.15 men) with community-acquired pneumonia and no history of heart failure. A total of 23,060 matched cohorts (controls) without pneumonia were also included. The primary outcome of the study was the risk of hospital admission for incident heart failure or a combined outcome of heart failure or death.
During a median follow-up of 9.9 years, 592 patients (11.9%) had incident heart failure, as compared with 1,712 participants (7.4%) in the cohort group. The risk of heart failure was age depended, with patients of pneumonia aged 65 or less having the lowest absolute increase, as compared with controls. But they also had a greater relative risk. Patients aged above 65 years had the highest absolute risk but lower relative risk.
The research concluded that community-acquired pneumonia was associated with an increased risk of heart failure, and its absolute and relative risk varied across ages.
Ref: https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.j413
