The incidence of anaemia in adult patients with cardiovascular diseases in northwest Iran

Objective: To determine the frequency of anaemia in adult patients who were hospitalized with a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease in East Azerbaijan province, northwest Iran. Methods: Overall 12031 adult patients with different cardiovascular disease (according to International Classification of Diseases vr. 10) were studied. These patients were hospitalized in 15 hospitals in East Azerbaijan province from March 2007 to March 2008. Patient s clinical characteristics were collected retrospectively, considering their main clinical diagnosis and co-morbidities and risk factors. Anaemia was defined as haemoglobin 12 g/dl in women and 13 g/dl in men based on WHO criteria. Results: Among 12031 patients, 2913 (24.2%) were anaemic and 9118 were non-anaemic. The analysis of prevalence of anaemia showed that the highest proportion belonged to peripheral vascular disease with the prevalence rate of 56.1% followed by congenital heart disease (36.6%), heart failure (36.0%), valvular heart disease (34.0%) and pulmonary vascular disease (33.7%).There is a high rate of anaemia prevalence in age group older than 70 years and patients younger than 40 years. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed, being non-smoker, history of cardiac surgery, lower ejection fraction ( 40%) and serum creatinin level 1.2 mg/dl as independent predictors of anaemia. Conclusion: Overall 24% of our cardiovascular disease patients had anaemia. Anaemia was more common among patients with peripheral vascular disease, then congenital heart disease and congestive heart failure. History of surgery, non-smoking, lower ejection fraction and higher serum creatinine level increase the incidence of anaemia.