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AHA Scientific Sessions 2026 Abstract

Frailty linked to more deaths in heart failure-related shock

In-hospital mortality was 37.1% in the high-frailty group versus 16.3% in the low-frailty group in a national database analysis.

Paper by Mohammad Hazique, Momna Noor, Benoit Bewley, M Chadi C Alraies, Jasjit K Bhinder · Brown Univ · Vassar Brothers Med Cntr

Our read

Biomarkers
Studied:
Cohort study of 203,272 weighted heart failure-related cardiogenic shock hospitalizations
What changed:
Death during hospitalization was higher with high frailty: 37.1% against 16.3% with low frailty
The catch:
Underlying illness severity could explain both higher frailty scores and higher mortality despite adjustment
Why it’s aging research:
It measures an outcome that worsens with age.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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People admitted urgently with heart failure-related cardiogenic shock—when the heart cannot pump enough blood—were studied in an observational analysis excluding acute heart attacks. The US National Readmission Database analysis covered a weighted total of 203,272 hospitalizations from 2018–2020. The high-frailty group was older than the low-frailty group (70.5 versus 62.1 years) and more often female (44.7% versus 33.8%).

In-hospital mortality was 16.3%, 34.5% and 37.1% across low, intermediate and high frailty-score groups. After adjustment for demographics, other illnesses and hospital characteristics, intermediate and high frailty were each linked to about 1.9-fold higher mortality than low frailty. High frailty was also linked to less use of catheter-based heart-pressure tests. Among survivors, high frailty was linked to greater risks of death during readmission and infection-related readmission, but a lower risk of heart failure-specific readmission.

Why it matters

Frailty means increased vulnerability to physical stress, a concern in caring for aging adults. The authors supported systematic frailty assessment to guide heart monitoring and care planning after discharge.

Caveats

Underlying illness severity may have contributed to both higher frailty scores and mortality despite adjustment. These conference-abstract findings concern urgent heart failure-related shock admissions without an acute heart attack.

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