Abstract

Background: In recent years, chloride has been suggested as a potential prognostic marker for predicting mortality in heart failure (HF). However, the prognostic effect on longer-term mortality has rarely been evaluated in chronic HF with acute conditions. The current study aims to investigate the prognostic role of chloride simultaneously in the short- and long-term mortality in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods: Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV version 2.2 was applied, with 3,068 subjects included in the study. ICU mortality, in-hospital mortality, and total mortality were evaluated. Logistic regression models and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to explore the relationship between chloride levels or hypochloremia/normal group and mortalities.

Results: Chloride level exhibited negative associations with ICU mortality, in-hospital mortality, and total mortality. Correspondingly, hypochloremia exhibited positive associations with ICU mortality, in-hospital mortality, and total mortality. When further adjusted for multiple demographic and clinical characteristics, the aforementioned results remained significant.

Conclusion: Chloride serves as a prognostic marker for predicting mortality for HF patients admitted to ICU. The prognostic effect was revealed simultaneously in short-term mortality and long-term mortality. The add-on of chloride monitoring will be beneficial to the future prevention of mortality of HF.