Epidemiological and evolutionary characteristics of heart failure in patients with left bundle branch block – A Moroccan center-based study

Abstract Background In patients with heart failure, left bundle branch block (LBBB) seems to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality. Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine the in-hospital outcome of congestive heart failure patients with LBBB versus those without. Methods We conducted a prospective observational study at the Department of Intensive Care and Rhythmology at the Mohammed V Military Hospital of Rabat, where 330 patients were admitted for heart failure between January 2008 and September 2012. Screening out patients with missing data yielded a cohort of 274 patients. Among the 274 patients, only 110 had LBBB and a left ventricular ejection fraction lower than 50%. We randomly selected a subset of 110 patients diagnosed as non-LBBB to ensure a significant statistical comparison between LBBB and non-LBBB patients. We therefore considered two groups in our analysis: 110 heart failure (HF) patients with LBBB and 110 HF patients without LBBB. Patients with incomplete records were excluded. Results Male gender was dominant in both groups (82.7% vs. 66.7%, p  = 0.005). Patients with LBBB had a higher prevalence of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (39.1% vs. 4.8%, p p p p  = 0.008). Conclusion Our analysis emphasizes increased in-hospital mortality and higher disease severity, over a short period of stay, in heart failure patients with left bundle branch block.