Clinical InvestigationCongestive Heart FailureSerum albumin concentration and heart failure risk: The Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study
Section snippets
Study population
The Health ABC Study is a population-based cohort of 3,075 well-functioning, community-dwelling men and women aged 70 to 79 years at inception. Participants were identified from black and white residents using Medicare beneficiary rolls and residing in zip codes from the metropolitan areas of Pittsburgh, PA, and Memphis, TN. The recruitment period was from March 1997 to July 1998. Eligibility criteria included the following: age 70 to 79 years at inception; no difficulties performing basic
Baseline participant characteristics
The mean age of participants was 73.6 ± 2.9 years, with 48.0% male and 58.7% white. Mean albumin was 39.8 g/L (range 28.0-50.0). Median follow-up was 9.4 years (interquartile range, 7.0-9.4 years). During this period, 342 (11.8%) of 2,907 participants developed HF (incidence rate of 14.9, 95% CI 13.4-16.5 per 1,000 person-years). Table I presents the baseline characteristics of participants. Baseline inflammatory markers (IL-6, TNF-α, and CRP) were higher in participants who developed HF. Data
Discussion
In this elderly cohort, baseline serum albumin concentration was inversely associated with risk for incident HF in a time-dependent fashion. This association persisted after controlling for other known predictors of HF, several inflammatory biomarkers, and incident coronary heart disease and was not affected when death was analyzed as a competing risk.
Interestingly, the average baseline serum albumin in participants who developed HF during the entire 10-year follow-up period was not
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