Aim: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a common cause of mortality and morbidity. Obesity influences the CHF development and prognosis. This study was conducted to assess effect of heart failure reversal therapy (HFRT), a combination of panchakarma and allied therapies, on anthropometric parameters in CHF patients.
Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on data of patients who visited Madhavbaug clinics in Maharashtra, India between July and December 2018. Selection was based upon the availability of complete baseline (day 1 of HFRT) and follow-up data (day 30 of HFRT) of CHF patients who were admitted for minimum 5 days for HFRT.
Results: Out of 147 patients, 74.15% were men, with a mean age of 59.15 ± 10.28 years. There was a statistically significant decrease (p<0.05) in both mean BMI and abdominal girth at day 30 of HFRT. Of the 147 patients, 42 (28.57%) had hypertension with CHF, 22 (14.97%) had diabetes and 61 (41.49%) had both hypertension and diabetes. In these sub-groups, mean BMI and abdominal girth significantly decreased (p<0.05) at day 30. A strong positive correlation was found between BMI and abdominal girth on day 1 (R 0.9, p<0.05) and day 30 (R 0.83, p<0.05) by Pearson’s correlation. A similar correlation was found between the two parameters in subsets of CHF patients having hypertension or diabetes or both (p<0.05).
Conclusion: HFRT decreased BMI and abdominal circumference significantly in CHF patients, irrespective of the presence of hypertension or diabetes. Both the anthropometric parameters correlated strongly in all co-morbidity subsets of CHF patients.