Heart failure & cardiomyopathies
Systemic Inflammation and Adverse Heart Failure Outcomes: Insights From the Veterans Affairs Health Care System
Main finding · 3-component MACE (death, HF hospitalization, and HF-related emergency department encounters)Result — go to the resultHazard ratio 1.28 95% CI 1.24–1.33Authors' conclusion
Among Veterans with HFmrEF/HFpEF, SI is associated with increased adverse clinical outcomes and higher costs.
Study context
- Population
- Veterans with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)/HFmrEF with outpatient high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) testing from 2008 to 2022Veterans with HFpEF/HFmrEF with outpatient hsCRP levels
- Participants
- 49,986 veterans
- Exposure
- Veterans with systemic inflammation (SI) vs without SI
- SIn = 25,352 (50.7%)
- Without SIn = 8,696 (17.4%)reference
- Outcome
- 3-component major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE):
- Death
- HF hospitalization
- HF-related emergency department encounters
- Follow-up
- Median 3.4 years (IQR: 1.8-5.8)
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Hazard ratio
1.28
95% CI 1.24–1.33
By group
SI
15.1/100 patient-years
incidence · 95% CI 14.9–15.4
Without SI
11.8/100 patient-years
incidence · 95% CI 11.4–12.1
SI vs without SI
HR 1.28 (95% CI 1.24–1.33)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | Incidence rate ratio (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|
| All-cause hospitalizations | 1.19 (1.137–1.246) | |
| 0.512Incidence rate ratio (log scale) |
| Outcome | Additional per-patient costs (95% CI) |
|---|---|
| Per-patient costs · 1 yearHigher with SI | $9,112 ($6,135-$12,089) |
Original publication
Systemic Inflammation and Adverse Heart Failure Outcomes: Insights From the Veterans Affairs Health Care System. JACC Adv. Published 23 October 2026. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it