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Association between quality of life and prognosis of candidate patients for heart transplantation: a cross-sectional study* * Paper extracted from master’s thesis “Associação entre qualidade de vida e prognóstico de pacientes candidatos ao transplante cardíaco de um hospital terciário do Rio de Janeiro: um estudo transversal”, presented to Programa de Pós-graduação Mestrado Profissional em Ciências Cardiovasculares, Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia, Rio de janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

ABSTRACT

Objective:

to verify the association between the prognostic scores and the quality of life of candidates for heart transplantation.

Method:

a descriptive cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 32 outpatients applying to heart transplantation. The prognosis was rated by the Heart Failure Survival Score (HFSS) and the Seattle Heart Failure Model (SHFM); and the quality of life by the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) and the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). The Pearson correlation test was applied.

Results:

the correlations found between general quality of life scores and prognostic scores were (HFSS/MLHFQ r = 0.21), (SHFM/MLHFQ r = 0.09), (HFSS/KCCQ r = -0.02), (SHFM/KCCQ r = -0.20).

Conclusion:

the weak correlation between the prognostic and quality of life scores suggests a lack of association between the measures, i.e., worse prognosis does not mean worse quality of life and the same statement is true in the opposite direction.

Descriptors:
Heart Failure; Quality of Life; Heart Transplantation; Prognosis; Ambulatory Care; Adult

RESUMO

Objetivo:

verificar a associação entre os escores de prognóstico e a qualidade de vida de pacientes candidatos ao Transplante Cardíaco.

Método:

estudo transversal descritivo, com amostra de conveniência formada por 32 pacientes ambulatoriais candidatos ao transplante cardíaco. O prognóstico foi classificado pelo Heart Failure Survival Score (HFSS) e pelo Seattle Heart Failure Model (SHFM); e a qualidade de vida pelo Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) e pelo Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). Aplicou-se o teste de correlação de Pearson.

Resultados:

as correlações encontradas entre os escores gerais dos instrumentos de qualidade de vida e os escores de prognósticos foram (HFSS/MLHFQ r = 0,21), (SHFM/MLHFQ r = 0,09), (HFSS/KCCQ r = -0,02), (SHFM/KCCQ r = -0,20).

Conclusão:

a correlação fraca entre os escores de prognóstico e de qualidade de vida sugere a não associação entre as medidas, ou seja, pior prognóstico não significa pior qualidade de vida e o mesmo ocorre no sentido inverso.

Descritores:
Insuficiência Cardíaca; Qualidade de Vida; Transplante de Coração; Prognóstico; Assistência Ambulatorial; Adulto

RESUMEN

Objetivo:

verificar la asociación entre los puntajes del pronóstico y la calidad de vida de pacientes candidatos al Trasplante Cardíaco.

Método:

estudio transversal descriptivo, con una muestra de conveniencia formada por 32 pacientes de ambulatorios candidatos al trasplante cardíaco. El pronóstico fue clasificado por el Heart Failure Survival Score (HFSS) y por el Seattle Heart Failure Model (SHFM) y la calidad de vida por el Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) y por el Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). Se aplicó el test de correlación de Pearson.

Resultados:

las correlaciones encontradas entre los puntajes generales de los instrumentos de calidad de vida y los puntajes de pronósticos fueron (HFSS/MLHFQ r = 0,21), (SHFM/MLHFQ r = 0,09), (HFSS/KCCQ r = -0,02), (SHFM/KCCQ r = -0,20).

Conclusión:

la correlación débil entre los puntajes de pronóstico y de calidad de vida sugiere la no asociación entre las medidas, o sea, peor pronóstico no significa peor calidad de vida y el mismo ocurre en el sentido inverso.

Descriptores:
Insuficiencia Cardíaca; Calidad de Vida; Trasplante de Corazón; Pronóstico; Atención Ambulatoria; Adulto

Introduction

The availability of solid organs for transplantation is a problem worldwide11 Fernandes MEN, Bittencourt ZZLC, IFSF Boin. Experiencing organ donation: feelings of relatives after consente. Rev. Latino-Am. Enfermagem. [Internet].2015 Oct [cited Dec 12, 2017];23(5):895-901. Available from: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rlae/v23n5/0104-1169-rlae-23-05-00895.pdf
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rlae/v23n5/0104...

2 Israni AK, Zaun D, Bolch C, Rosendale JD, Snyder JJ, Kasiske BL. Deceased Organ Donation. Am J Transplant. [Internet]. 2016 Jan [cited Dec 19, 2017];16 Suppl 2:195-215. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajt.13673/epdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.11...

3 Westphal GA, Garcia VD, Souza RL, Franke CA, Vieira KD, Birckholz VRZ, et al. Guidelines for the assessment and acceptance of potential brain-dead organ donors. Rev Bras Ter Intensiva. [Internet]. 2016 Jul-Sep [cited Nov 18, 2017]; 28(3): 220-55. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5051181/pdf/rbti-28-03-0220.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article...
-44 Lentine KL, Costa SP, Weir MR, Robb JF, Fleisher LA, Kasiske BL, et al. Cardiac Disease Evaluation and Management Among Kidney and Liver Transplantation Candidates. Circulation. [Internet]. 2012 Jul [cited Nov 22, 2017];126:00-00. Available from: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/126/5/617
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. There had been an expressive increase in the number of cardiac transplantations (CT) in the world until the mid-1990s. Since then, due to improvements in the clinical management of heart failure (HF) and the inherent limitation of donors, the number of CT remains stable: 4,000 to 5,00055 Lund LH, Edwards LB, Kucheryavaya AY, Dipchand AI, Benden C, Christie JD et al. The Registry of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation: Thirtieth Official Adult Heart Transplant Report-2013; Focus Theme: Age. J Heart Lung Transplant [Internet]. 2013 Oct [cited Ago 12, 2017];32(10):951-64. Available from: http://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-2498(13)01382-X/pdf
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. In Brazil, in 2016, of the 631 patients entered in the CT queue, 145 died before receiving a heart, with only 357 CT being performed, which reaches 1.7 transplants per million population66 Registros Brasileiros de Transplante [Internet]. Dimensionamento dos Transplantes no Brasil e em cada Estado. 2016 [cited Nov 8, 2017]. Available from: http://www.abto.org.br/abtov03/Upload/file/RBT/2016/RBT2016-leitura.pdf
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. These facts reinforce the need for an accurate indication for CT, considering the risk stratification of the patients and the patient’s desire to transplant.

In this context, studies have described the prognostic scores in HF as well-used and accurate measures to stratify risk77 Goda A, Williams P, Mancini D, Lars H. Selecting patients for Heart Transplantation: Comparison of the Heart Failure Survival Score (HFSS) and the Seattle Heart Failure Model (SHFM). J Heart Lung Transplant. [Internet]. 2011 Nov [cited Ago 15, 2017];30:1236-43. Available from: http://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-2498(11)01005-9/pdf
http://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-...
-88 Regoli F, Scopigni F, Leyva F, Landolina M, Ghio S, Tritto M, et al. Validation of Seattle Heart Failure Model for mortality risk prediction in patients treated with cardiac resynchronization therapy. Eur J Heart Fail. [Internet]. 2013 Feb [cited Ago 15, 2017];15:211-20. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1093/eurjhf/hfs162/epdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...
and when associated to the peak of oxygen consumption (VO2) can help the indication of transplantation, according to the suggestion of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation - ISHLT99 Mehra MR, Canter CE, Hannan MM, Semigran MJ, Uber PA, Baran DA, et al. The 2016 International Society for Heart Lung Transplantation listing criteria for heart transplantation: A 10-year update. J Heart Lung Transplant. [Internet]. 2016 Jan [cited Ago 15, 2017]; 35(1):1-23. Available from: http://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-2498(15)01484-9/pdf
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, whereas the specific instruments of Quality of Life (QoL) have shown to be accurate in assessing QoL in patients with HF1010 Napier R, McNulty S, Eton DT, Redfield MM, Ezzeddine AO, Dunlay SM. Comparing Measures to Assess Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Heartfailure with Preserved Ejection Fraction. J Card Fail. [Internet]. 2017 Aug [cited Nov 15, 2017]; 23:S100. Available from: http://www.onlinejcf.com/article/S1071-9164(17)30514-6/pdf
http://www.onlinejcf.com/article/S1071-9...
-1111 Sauser K, Spertus JA, Pierchala L, Davis E, Pang OS. Quality of Life Assessment for Acute Heart Failure Patients From Emergency Department Presentation Through 30 Days After Discharge: A Pilot Study With the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire. J Card Fail. 2014; 20:18-22. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2013.11.010
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2013....
.

Besides, scholars1212 Coleman B, Blumenthal N, Currey J, Dobbels F, Velleca A, Grady KL, et al. Adult cardiothoracic transplant nursing: An ISHLT consensus document on the current adult nursing practice in heart and lung transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. [Internet]. 2015 Feb [cited Nov 29, 2017];34:139-48. Available from: http://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-2498(14)01450-8/pdf

13 Allen LA, Spertus JA. Endpoints for Comparative Effectiveness Research in Heart Failure. Heart Fail Clin. [Internet]. 2013 Jan [cited Nov 29, 2017]; 9(1): 15-28. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3506122/pdf/nihms405929.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article...
-1414 Grady KL. The role of nurses in understanding and enhancing quality of life: A journey from advanced heart failure to heart transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. [Internet] 2017 Dec [cited Nov 29, 2017];36:1306-8. Available from: http://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-2498(17)32058-2/pdf
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recommend that nursing progresses in research practices to evaluate outcomes such as QoL, prognosis and readmission in patients with advanced HF and transplant candidates, as well as after CT and clinical follow-up.

Therefore, as the improvement of QoL, in addition to increased survival, is one of the objectives to be achieved with the indication of the CT, and as HF has an impact on QoL, besides as a poor prognosis, this article aims to check the association between the prognostic scores and the QoL of candidates for CT.

Method

This is a cross-sectional study delineated by a non-probabilistic or convenience sample, delimited initially by all the adult patients listed and being prepared for CT of the National Institute of Cardiology (INC) in Rio de Janeiro.

Data were collected from March to August 2016. Inclusion criteria were outpatient candidates for HT; being 18 years of age or over; having performed ergospirometry. Exclusion criteria were patients who have been admitted during data collection without the possibility of hospital discharge; diagnosis of psychiatric illness; incomplete medical records regarding the data necessary to classify prognostic scores.

During the study period, 47 patients were potentially eligible and of these 32 patients were selected, as described in Figure 1.

Figure 1
Scheme for the selection of research subjects

Data collection was performed in the outpatient clinic of the INC, in two stages.

The first stage involved the data collection in medical records. The schedule of the certified physician for CT was used as a guide to identify the patients who were candidates for CT and to collect information on patients’ sociodemographic and clinical profile, as well as data for the classification by the Heart Failure Survival Score (HFSS) and the Seattle Heart Failure Model (SHFM), described in Figure 2.

Figure 2
Variables collected in medical records

For the second phase of this research, a pilot test was carried out with the application of three questionnaires from the Minnesota Living Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) and the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ), and we found that patients were unable to answer them alone, which can be explained by the schooling that ranged from elementary to higher education in this sample. For this reason, the interview method was chosen for this phase, and therefore, it was performed after the medical consultation. The four patients who missed the consultations were contacted via telephone for a new appointment, of whom two refused to participate and two answered the questionnaires at the next appointment.

The research instruments used were SHFM, HFSS, KCCQ and MLHFQ. The SHFM consists of 20 variables divided into clinical (age, sex, New York Heart Association - NYHA Functional Class - FC, weight, Left-Ventricular Ejection Fraction - LVEF, systolic blood pressure), medications (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor - ACEI, beta-blocker-BB, angiotensin-receptor blocker - ARB, statin, allopurinol, aldosterone antagonist and type-specific diuretics), laboratory data (hemoglobin, lymphocytes, uric acid, total cholesterol, serum sodium) and Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) or Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD)1515 Wayne CL, Dariush M, MD, Linker DT,Sutradhar SC, Anker SD, et al. The Seattle Heart Failure Model Prediction of Survival in Heart Failure. Circulation. [Internet]. 2006 Mar [cited Nov 15, 2016];113(11):1424-33. Available from: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/113/11/1424.long
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.

The HFSS is composed of six variables calculated by the following formula1616 Aaronson KD, Schwartz JS, Chen TM, Wong KL, Goin JE, Mancini DM. Development and prospective validation of a clinical index to predict survival in ambulatory patients referred for cardiac transplant evaluation. Circulation. [Internet]. 1997 Jun [cited Nov 15, 2016];95(12):2660-7. Available from: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/95/12/2660.long
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:

HFSS = [(0.0216 x resting heart rate) + (-0.0255 x mean systemic arterial pressure) + (-0.0464 x left-ventricular ejection fraction) + (-0.0470 x serum sodium) + (-0.0546 x oxygen consumption during maximal exercise) + (0.6083 x presence of intraventricular conduction defect) + (0.6931 x presence of coronary disease)]

The MLHFQ1717 Carvalho VO, Guimarães GV, Carrara D, Bacal F, Bocchi EA. Validation of the Portuguese Version of the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire. Arq Bras Cardiol. [Internet]. 2009 Jul [cited Nov 15, 2016];93(1):39-44. Available from: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/abc/v93n1/en_08.pdf
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is composed of 21 questions divided by two dimensions (physical and emotional) and total score. The total score is calculated with the sum of the questions ranging from 0 to 105, in which the higher the score, the worse the QoL.

And the KCCQ1818 Green PC, Porter BC, Bresnahan DR, Spertus JA. Development and Evaluation of the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire: A New Health Status Measure for Heart Failure. J Am Coll Cardiol. [Internet]. 2000 Apr [cited Nov 15, 2016];35:1245-55. Available from: https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0735109700005313/1-s2.0-S0735109700005313-main.pdf?_tid=ce183502-e4ff-11e7-88c9-00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1513717486_23599515c8b95c2e0b141bf5eebd5f7c
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is composed of 15 questions, with 23 items, organized in five dimensions: Physical limitation; Symptoms (frequency/severity/stability); Quality of life, Self-care; and Social limitation. The result of the score ranges from 0 to 100, in which the higher the score, the better the QoL.

The collected data were compiled and processed by the Microsoft Excel® software of the Microsoft Office® package and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 24 software, divided in three steps. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to assess whether the sample distribution was normal.

In the first stage, simple descriptive statistics was performed to present the sociodemographic and clinical profile of the sample. The second step also consisted of a descriptive analysis of the prognostic scores (HFSS and SHFM) and the QoL scores (MLHFQ and KCCQ).

The third step consisted of correlation analyzes between the two prognostic scores, with the QoL scores. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used which presupposes a linear correlation between quantitative variables. For this study, we used the reference that categorizes the correlation at r = 0.10 to 0.30 (weak); r = 0.40 to 0.6 (moderate); r = 0.70 to 1 (strong).

The present study was approved by the Ethics and Research Committee of the hospital where the research was carried out under approval number 51348515.0.0000.5272, and all the participants signed the Informed Consent Form.

Results

Table 1 presents the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the participants.

Table 1
Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the sample (n = 32). Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil, 2017

When classified by the HFSS, 89.2% of the patients were described as medium and low risk for mortality in one year ahead, however, when classified by the SHFM, 90.6% were described as medium and high risk for mortality in one year ahead.

The mean QoL scores of the participants by the MLHFQ and KCCQ questionnaires are described in Table 2.

Table 2
Classification of the quality of life of participants by the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire and the Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire, divided by dimensions (n = 32). Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brazil, 2017.

The Pearson correlation matrix between the general scores of quality of life instruments and the prognostic tools showed the following absolute values: HFSS x MLHFQ - 0.21; HFSS x KCCQ = 0.02; SHFM x MLHFQ = 0.09; and SHFM x KCCQ - 0.20.

When analyzing the relationships between individual prognostic scores (HFSS and SHFM) with distinct quality of life scores (MLHFQ and KCCQ), we found in all cases a weak correlation, with the highest value found for r = 0.21, which suggests that there is no association between the two prognostic scores with the two QoL measurement instruments, that is, patients with worse prognosis may present good quality of life and vice versa.

Discussion

The weak correlation between the prognostic scores and the QoL scores found in this study suggests that the patient’s perception, measured by QoL, as well as the prognostic score are a complementary measure to be used in clinical practice to aid the indication of CT.

No studies were found in the literature that associate prognostic scores with specific QoL instruments in HF, however one study evaluated the relationship between SHFM and a generic QOL instrument1919 Li Y, Neilson MP, Whellan DJ, Schulman KA,Levy WC, Reed SD. Associations Between Seattle Heart Failure Model Scores and Health Utilities: Findings From HF-ACTION. J Card Fail. [Internet]. 2013 May [cited Nov 29, 2017];19(5):311-6. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3709866/pdf/nihms-491334.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article...
. Also, some studies have discussed the impact on the mortality of the specific instruments that measure QOL in HF2020 Lewis E, Zile MR, Swedberg K, Rouleau JL, Claggett B, Lefkowitz MP, et al. Abstract 17912: Health-related Quality of Life Outcomes in PARADIGM-HF. Circulation [Internet]. 2015 Nov [cited Nov 29, 2017];1 32:A17912. Available from: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/132/suppl_3/a17912
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/132/...

21 Hoekstra T, Jaarsma T, Veldhuisen D, Hillege H, Sanderman R, Lesman-Leegte I. Quality of life and survival in patients with heart failure. Eur J Heart Fail. [Internet]. 2013 Jan [cited Nov 29,2017];15:94-102. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1093/eurjhf/hfs148/pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...
-2222 Mastenbroek MH, Versteeg H, Zijlstra WP, Meine M, Spertus JA, Pedersen SS. Disease-specific health status as a predictor of mortality in patients with heart failure: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Eur J Heart Fail. [Internet]. 2014 Apr [cited Nov 29, 2017];16: 384-93. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejhf.55/epdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...
.

One study longitudinally evaluated the relationship between SHFM and the health status valuation measured by the generic instrument EuroQol 5D (EQ-5D). Through a linear regression, they evaluated 2,331 patients with a 2.5-year follow-up, with FC (NYHA) II to IV, LVEF ≤ 35%, showing that the increase of 1 unit in SHFM decreased by 0.03 points the EQ-5D in the baseline assessment and that each year that the SHFM increased in one point, the EQ-5D decreased 0.006 points. These results showed that patients with high mortality risk had significantly lower EQ-5D and had higher rates of decline over time1919 Li Y, Neilson MP, Whellan DJ, Schulman KA,Levy WC, Reed SD. Associations Between Seattle Heart Failure Model Scores and Health Utilities: Findings From HF-ACTION. J Card Fail. [Internet]. 2013 May [cited Nov 29, 2017];19(5):311-6. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3709866/pdf/nihms-491334.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article...
.

Regarding the impact on mortality, one study followed 8,443 patients with reduced LVEF for 4.8 months and annually to assess the association of KCCQ with mortality in a randomized clinical trial comparing the use of enalapril with a new class of drugs, namely the LCZ696, which is a medicine composed of two complementary pharmacological agents. One of them, valsartan is a direct blocker of ARB, and the other is an inhibitor of neprilysin, an enzyme responsible for the degradation of endogenous vasodilator peptides, such as bradykinin, natriuretic peptides and calcitonin gene-related peptide, among others. And it concluded that KCCQ is associated with survival. Changes in QoL were better in patients treated with LCZ696 compared to enalapril, with consistency in most domains. These findings suggest that LCZ696 leads to better QoL2020 Lewis E, Zile MR, Swedberg K, Rouleau JL, Claggett B, Lefkowitz MP, et al. Abstract 17912: Health-related Quality of Life Outcomes in PARADIGM-HF. Circulation [Internet]. 2015 Nov [cited Nov 29, 2017];1 32:A17912. Available from: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/132/suppl_3/a17912
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/132/...
.

Another study observed patients for three years, measuring B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), and used the overall well-being evaluated by Cantril’s Ladder of Life, the MLHFQ to evaluate QoL and the Medical Outcome Study 36-item General Health Survey (RAND36) as a generic instrument and concluded that QoL is an independent predictor for survival2121 Hoekstra T, Jaarsma T, Veldhuisen D, Hillege H, Sanderman R, Lesman-Leegte I. Quality of life and survival in patients with heart failure. Eur J Heart Fail. [Internet]. 2013 Jan [cited Nov 29,2017];15:94-102. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1093/eurjhf/hfs148/pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...
.

In addition, a systematic review and a meta-analysis of prospective cohorts with patients with stabilized HF and with follow-up of at least 1 month, published between 2002 and 2013, used KCCQ and MLHFQ to assess mortality and concluded that these instruments are significant mortality predictors besides the traditional risk factors2222 Mastenbroek MH, Versteeg H, Zijlstra WP, Meine M, Spertus JA, Pedersen SS. Disease-specific health status as a predictor of mortality in patients with heart failure: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Eur J Heart Fail. [Internet]. 2014 Apr [cited Nov 29, 2017];16: 384-93. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejhf.55/epdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...
.

Whereas ISHLT99 Mehra MR, Canter CE, Hannan MM, Semigran MJ, Uber PA, Baran DA, et al. The 2016 International Society for Heart Lung Transplantation listing criteria for heart transplantation: A 10-year update. J Heart Lung Transplant. [Internet]. 2016 Jan [cited Ago 15, 2017]; 35(1):1-23. Available from: http://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-2498(15)01484-9/pdf
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) suggests the use of the HFSS or SHFM prognostic scores associated with VO2 peak to aid the indication to the CT, the difference in the risks found between the two scores in the same sample can be explained by the different variables considered by each score, such as the VO2 peak present in the HFSS, an important predictor for the indication of CT and absent in SHFM, as well as drugs such as BB, spironolactone and ICD, which improve the survival of this population, present in SHFM, but absent in the HFSS. Thus, SHFM was more reliable for classification of the prognosis in this sample.

Regarding the evaluation of QoL, the mean scores of the MLHFQ are in line with the study that dealt with QoL in patients with advanced HF in the CT queue that resulted in a mean of the total score of 40.61, of the physical dimension of 14.96 and of the emotional dimension of 7.70 2323 Karapolat H, Eyigor S, Zoghi M, Nalbantgil S, Yagdi T, Durmaz B, et al. Health Related Quality of Life in Patients Awaiting Heart Transplantation. Tohoku J Exp Med. [Internet]. 2008 Jan [cited Nov 29, 2016]; 214:17-25. Available from: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tjem/214/1/214_1_17/_pdf/-char/en
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tje...
. In the KCCQ, patients’ perception of QoL is similar to the study that evaluated the QoL of outpatients with FC III (NYHA): overall score (52.00), symptom total score (67.38), and symptom frequency score (67.00)2424 Miani D, Rozbowsky P, Gregori D, Pilotto L, Albanese MC, Fresco C et al .The Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire: Italian translation and validation. Ital Heart J. [Internet]. 2003 Sep [cited Nov 29, 2016];4(9):620-6. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6735377
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Although it is assumed that the advanced stage disease presents more symptoms, causes greater dysfunction and consequently is related to poorer quality of life and worse prognosis2525 Yancy CW, Jessup M, Bozkurt B, Butler J, Casey DE, Drazner MH et al. 2013 ACCF/AHA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure. A Report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. Circulation. 2013; 128(16):e240-e327.doi: https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0b013e31829e8776
https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0b013e31829e...
-2626 Ponikowski P, Voors AA, Anker SD, Bueno H, Cleland JGF, Coats AJS et al. 2016 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure: The Task Force for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Developed with the special contribution of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC Eur J Heart Fail. 2016;37:2129-220. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehw128
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehw128...
, this may be true for an individual, but not necessarily it is the reality in a heterogeneous group of patients.

Thus, even if a relationship between prognosis and quality of life can be established in larger samples, as has been the efforts of studies in this area, great individual variation should not be overlooked, since patients with the disease in similar stages may differentiate their symptoms and their limitations. In addition, non-prognostic QoL measurements can provide relevant information on opportunities to improve patient care2727 Mommersteeg PMC, Denollet J, Spertus JA, Pedersen SS. Health status as a risk factor in cardiovascular disease: A systematic review of current evidence. Am Heart J. 2009;157:208-18. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2008.09.020
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2008.09....
, especially in the case of indication for CT, which aims to improve survival and QoL99 Mehra MR, Canter CE, Hannan MM, Semigran MJ, Uber PA, Baran DA, et al. The 2016 International Society for Heart Lung Transplantation listing criteria for heart transplantation: A 10-year update. J Heart Lung Transplant. [Internet]. 2016 Jan [cited Ago 15, 2017]; 35(1):1-23. Available from: http://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-2498(15)01484-9/pdf
http://www.jhltonline.org/article/S1053-...
,2626 Ponikowski P, Voors AA, Anker SD, Bueno H, Cleland JGF, Coats AJS et al. 2016 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure: The Task Force for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Developed with the special contribution of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC Eur J Heart Fail. 2016;37:2129-220. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehw128
https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehw128...
.

This research had some limitations, such as the size of the sample, data collection in a single center, the absence of information in the records for collection, as well as a scarce literature regarding the association of the specific instruments of quality of life with the scores of HF prognostics.

We suggest verifying the correlation between the prognostic scores and the physical and emotional dimensions of the QoL questionnaires (MLHFQ and KCCQ). Another approach would be to verify causality between instruments. In addition to these issues, an important study would be on the applicability of these tools in clinical practice, such as the feasibility of implementation in the workflow, integration with the institution’s electronic records and studies on costs, allowing the infrastructure to collect data and analyze them.

Conclusion

The weak correlation between the prognostic and QoL scores suggests the non-association between the scores, i.e., worse prognosis does not mean worse QoL and the opposite is also true.

The evaluation of the association between the HFSS and SHFM prognostic scores with specific instruments of QoL (MLHFQ and KCCQ) in candidates for CT is important and necessary, and the present study contributed to the pioneering nature of this practice in Brazil and also made it when using the KCCQ in the Brazilian population.

Acknowledgements

To Flávio Julião. Thank you for helping me, believing in my work, and for all the teaching throughout this period.

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  • *
    Paper extracted from master’s thesis “Associação entre qualidade de vida e prognóstico de pacientes candidatos ao transplante cardíaco de um hospital terciário do Rio de Janeiro: um estudo transversal”, presented to Programa de Pós-graduação Mestrado Profissional em Ciências Cardiovasculares, Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia, Rio de janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    2018

History

  • Received
    13 Feb 2018
  • Accepted
    26 July 2018
Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto / Universidade de São Paulo Av. Bandeirantes, 3900, 14040-902 Ribeirão Preto SP Brazil, Tel.: +55 (16) 3315-3451 / 3315-4407 - Ribeirão Preto - SP - Brazil
E-mail: rlae@eerp.usp.br