BACKGROUND: Valvular disease can course with heart failure (HF), anemia and renal dysfunction (RD), increasing the nutritional risk and worsening patient prognosis. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence of anemia and RD in patients with valvulopathy with or without HF, as well as establish a correlation with the nutritional status. METHODS: A total of 104 patients admitted at the Clinic of Valvulopathy of PROCAPE/UPE, during the period of Aug-Oct/2008. The data were obtained from the nutritional and medical follow-up files. The collected variables were: sex, age, nutritional status according to the body mass index (BMI), presence of HF, anemia and RD. Anemia was considered when hemoglobin values were < 13 g/dl in men and < 12 g/dl in women. RD was established according to the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and it was calculated through the formula proposed by Cockcroft and Gault. RESULTS: The prevalence of anemia and RD was 71.1% and 68.8%, and 48.1% and 60.0%, in patients with and without HF, respectively, with a statistically significant difference for anemia (p = 0.022). Of the patients, 48.1% were eutrophic, 26.9% had excess weight and 25.0% presented some degree of malnutrition. The patients with HF presented a higher frequency of low weight (p = 0.020). The nutritional status was not associated with anemia (p = 0.117), but it was associated with RD, with renal function being decreased more often in patients with low weight (p = 0.000). CONCLUSION: When the prevalence of malnutrition, anemia and RD was compared between patients with and without HF, it showed statistical significance.
Heart failure; anemia; malnutrition; heart valve diseases
