(P168) LOW BODY TEMPERATURE IN HEART FAILURE PATIENTS; PREVALENCE AND OUTCOMES

Background: Although body temperature is a classic primary vital sign, its value has received little attention compared with the others (blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate). Body temperature has the potential to be an important marker for assessing risk in these complex heart failure patients given that it is simple to measure and widely available. Low body temperature is a neglected vital sign. There is some evidence that a lower-than-normal body temperature could be a predictor of potentially serious clinical outcomes in heart failure (HF).

METHODS AND RESULTS: We included 1381 patients who were admitted with diagnosis of heart failure between January 2018 to December 2023 in this retrospective cohort study at the University of Alberta Hospital. Patients were stratified based on body temperature on admission into two groups (below 36 Celsius degree (C) , and equal to or higher than 36 C). The Prevalence of low body temperature in this HF cohort was 15.7 %. And patients with low body temperature at admission had significantly longer duration of heart failure (3.4 years vs 2.7 years, p< 0.01), lower Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (EGFR) (48 vs 52, p=0.08), lower EF in Echo (%) (40.8 vs 43.3, p=0.03) than those with normal temperature. In the multivariable logistic regression model, age (OR=1.06 per year, 95% C.I (1.04, 1.08)), male sex (OR=1.85, 95% CI (1.22, 2.81)), baseline EGFR (OR=0.98 per ml/min, 95% CI (0.97, 0.99)) and admission NYHA class (class 3 vs 4, OR=0.53, 95% CI (0.34, 0.81)) were significantly associated with in-hospital mortality but not low body temperature (OR=1.4, 95% CI (0.86, 2.27)).

Conclusion: Although some studies suggest mortality is increased in patients with low body temperature at admission, we found that after adjustment for HF prognostic variables associated with lower body temperature then there was no mortality excess with lower body temperature.