Abstract 15564: Iron Deficiency Treatment Among Hospitalized Heart Failure Patients

Introduction: Iron deficiency (ID) is prevalent among patients with heart failure (HF). ID is associated with impaired quality of life and increased heart failure hospitalizations and is often missed or untreated. We examined clinical data spanning 10 years, comparing males and females overall and stratifying by admission date to further elucidate undertreatment of ID. Methods: We assessed patients who were admitted to UAB with a primary diagnosis of HF and were tested for ID from January 1, 2012, to July 7, 2021. We included patients during their index admission, who were iron deficient based on ferritin levels and/or transferrin saturation, dividing patients into two time periods based on changes in iron treatment patterns. We then compared males and females during each of the time periods. We used logistic regression to explore the association between sex and iron treatment modality, adjusting for relevant covariates. Results: In total, 1855 patients were iron deficient and treated with iron. Females were more likely to have a ferritin value less than 50 μ g/L (48% M vs 55% F, p=0.0006). Despite lower ferritin values, females had lower odds of receiving IV iron than males, both unadjusted (0.66, CI 0.55-0.79, p<0.0001) and adjusted for covariates (0.72, CI 0.59-0.87, p<0.0001). Conclusions: When comparing the two time periods, there is an increase in patients with more severe ID, indicated by ferritin values less than 50 μ g/L, and an increase in utilization of IV iron. Despite being disproportionately affected by severe, iron-deficiency anemia, women received IV iron therapy significantly less often than men across the 10 years studied. Even with improvement in the use of IV iron, treatment disparities remain, and more effort is needed to identify and reduce these disparities.