Influence of nutrition support therapy on readmission among patients with acute heart failure in the intensive care unit: A single-center observational study

Background & aims: The effect of nutrition support therapy on prevention of readmission among patients with acute heart failure (HF) in an intensive care unit (ICU) setting remains unclear. We hypothesized that nutrition support therapy might decrease the readmission rate among these patients. Thus, we conducted a single-center prospective observational study to verify this hypothesis. Methods: Patients diagnosed with acute HF admitted to the ICU for more than 14 days between April 2016 and March 2017 were included in the analysis. The primary outcome was the relationship between nutritional intake and HF-related hospital readmission due to HF at 180 days after discharge. We divided the participants into 2 groups: patients who were not readmitted to hospital within 180 days after discharge (non-readmission group) and patients who were readmitted within this timeframe (HF-related readmission group). Data were expressed as median (interquartile range). Results: Sixty patients required readmission due to HF-related events (HF-related readmission group). On the other hand, 127 patients did not require readmission (non-readmission group). The calorie and protein intake on day 3 after ICU admission in the HF-related readmission group was significantly higher than that in the non-readmission group [20.5 (14.2, 27.8) vs. 27.7 (22.5, 31.2) kcal/kg/day, p < 0.001; 0.7 (0.5, 0.9) vs. 0.9 (0.7, 1.2) g/kg/day, p < 0.001, respectively]. Similarly, the protein intake values on day 7 were also significantly higher in the HF-related readmission group [0.8 (0.6, 1.0) vs. 0.9 (0.7, 1.2) g/kg/day, p = 0.04]. Multivariate analysis indicated that total caloric intake on day 3 was an independent factor affecting readmission (odds ratio = 1.05, 95% confidence interval = 1.01–1.09, p = 0.006). In addition, when the cut off value of calorie intake was set to 18 kcal/kg/day, the group ingesting ≥18 kcal/kg/day on day 3 had a significantly higher readmission rate within 180 days after discharge. Conclusions: Our data showed that total calorie intake ≥18 kcal/kg/day on day 3 might increase the readmission rate among patients with acute HF.