Adejumo AC, et al. - Researchers determined how protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) influenced clinical outcomes of admissions for heart failure (HF) exacerbations. For this purpose, they used the 2012-2014 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) patient's discharge records for primary HF admissions, and found 541,679 (∼2,708,395) primary admissions for HF between 2012 and 2014, of those, PEM cases were 32,771 (∼163,885). Using propensity matching, they matched PEM cohorts (32,771) to no-PEM controls (1:1) and assessed the impact of different clinical outcomes (SAS 9.4). They found that PEM prevailed as a comorbid condition among hospitalized HF subjects and was related to higher mortality, cardiogenic shock, cardiac arrest, acute kidney failure, acute respiratory failure, mechanical ventilation, and resulted in higher non-routine discharges, hospital cost, and longer duration of admission. Lower rates of obesity, hyperlipidemia and diabetes, and higher comorbid burden, with Deyo-comorbidity index >3 were observed in PEM cases.