Chronic anemia in adult patients with cardiovascular diseases, diagnosed clinically and by trans-thoracic-2-dimensional echocardiography: a semi-urban tertiary care teaching hospital study

Background: Anemia is one of the major health challenges to global development in this century and this Non-Communicable Disease is rapidly rising in both developed and developing countries. Chronic anemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and affect outcome in patients with heart failure, dilated cardiomyopathy and uncontrolled hypertension. Chronic anemia's have significant morbidity and mortality in untreated patients. This study was performed to analyze the prevalence of anemia among cardiac patients and to determine the relationship between anemia and socio demographic characteristics. Methods: We enrolled 300 adults' cardiac patients (?19 years) during study period. The analysis includes socio demographic data, traditional risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, laboratory test (hemoglobin and creatinine clearance measurement), and non-invasive cardiac investigations. Results: Our analysis suggests prevalence of anemia is very high in CVSD patients & more common among females, older age, diabetics, impaired clearance creatinine, hypertensive and low education level. The highest proportion belonged to valvular heart disease (77.8%), congestive heart failure (74.6%) followed by hypertension (54%), and the lowest is coronary artery disease (46%). Logistic regression reveals that low education, low clearance creatinine level, smoking and diabetes are independently associated with anemia. Conclusion: We conclude that anemia is common among cardiovascular disease patients, and worsens the prognosis of their clinical condition. Intervention policies to minimize anemia risk factors are needed.