Heart failure following STEMI: a contemporary cohort study of incidence and prognostic factors

The aim of the current study was to determine the contemporary incidence, risk factors and prognosis of heart failure (HF) after ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We used the Arrhythmia Genetics in the Netherlands observational cohort study to identify patients with a first STEMI from 2001 onwards (n=1459). HF during follow-up was defined as hospitalisation for HF or an outpatient clinic visit for HF. Cox regression was performed to estimate the relationship between baseline covariates and the onset of HF. Follow-up was completed for 1360 (93.2%) patients with an overall median follow-up time of 6.7 years, 1232 (90.6%) of these patients had undergone primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). A total of 85 patients (6.3%) developed HF during follow-up. HF cases were significantly older at their index MI (59.9 vs 57.2 years, P