There is no uniformly accepted clinical definition for congestive heart failure (CHF), although criteria have been published by various groups. There is also no Circulation 77, No. 3, 607-612, 1988. CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE is among the most frequently encountered cardiac diagnoses. Prevalence of congestive heart failure is estimated to be 1% in the United States,1 and Framingham data gives an incidence rate of about 2 per 1000 persons per year.2 Only 50% of patients diagnosed as having congestive heart failure survive for 5 years.' It also has major impact in terms of morbidity and hospitalization; among elderly patients, it is the most common medical indication for hospitalization.3Epidemiologic studies in congestive heart failure have been hampered by the lack of uniform diagnostic criteria, relying instead on physician diagnosis of the disease. The Framingham Study2 created clinical criteria for diagnosing congestive heart failure (

Aim: To evaluate the prevalence and longitudinal changes of prolonged QTc in DM patients admitted to our community hospital, and to determine, if any, its correlation with changes of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Methods: A retrospective chart review of patients with Type 1 (T1DM) and Type 2 (T2DM) with at least two admissions during a four-year period was performed to identify QTc interval, and LVEF, as measured on transthoracic echocardiogram. Changes in QTc and LVEF between patient hospital admissions were compared. Results: A prolonged QTc interval was found in 66.7% (n = 24) of type 1 and 51.3% (n = 154) type 2 diabetic patients. The QTc interval is progressively increased in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes during follow-up, although it did not reach statistical significance. A total of 62% patients (23 out 37 patients) had a reduction of LVEF during follow-up. Conclusion and Discussion: High prevalence of QTc prolongation was confirmed in hospitalized patients with in both T1DM and T2DM. Significant reduction of LVEF correlated with QTc prolongation over a mean of 17.3 months in T2DM patients, and may have implications for interventions.Abbreviations CHF: Congestive heart failure LVEF: Left ventricular ejection fraction

No abstract

No abstract