Mortalidad e índice de masa corporal en pacientes con insuficiencia cardiaca

introduction: obesity is a risk factor to develop a heart failure, paradoxically, there has been less mortality in obese patients presenting with this affection. objective: to analyze the relation between the body mss index (bmi) and the yearly mortality in patients seen in consultation of heart failure protocol. methods: authors studied 70 patients followed for 1 year, who were classified according to its body mass index (bmi) in 4 groups: low (bmi <18,5), normal (bmi from 18,5 to 24,9), excess weight (bmi from 25 to 29,9) and obese (= 30). the bmi was related to mortality; the tests chi2 and t students were used to find the statistic significance, estimating the relative risk with a 95% ci. results: the risk of dye at 1 year was minor for obese patients regarding the cases with low weight and those with a normal weight, rr = 7,00 ci = (1,02-48,65) and ci 3,5 = (1,01-12,38), respectively. other variables like the ejection fraction and the functional class not influenced on mortality, in all cases the p was greater than 0,05. conclusions: a body mass index great is a protection factor for mortality at 1 year of follow-up.