Introduction:

Heart failure is a habitually progressive clinical syndrome that frequently starts as left ventricular systolic dysfunction and culminates with diverse clinical manifestations of pump failure and low cardiac output and even death. Objective: The research sought to characterize the risk factors associated to the development of left ventricular systolic dysfunction and secondary heart failure as part of the spectrum of the heart failure syndrome in the population of Barranquilla-Colombia.

Materials and Methods:

A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with secondary source from a global health study in the city of Barranquilla-Colombia, which performed univariate and bivariate analysis to describe risk factors associated to left ventricular systolic dysfunction.

Results:

The study obtained the prevalence of four risk factors associated to the development de left ventricular systolic dysfunction: arterial hypertension (29.7%), obesity (26.5%), hyperglycemia (4.6%), and hypercholesterolemia (8.2%) in patients over 40 years of age, who are at higher risk.

Discussion:

This study sought to draw attention on the left ventricular systolic dysfunction, as a condition of relatively recent description and of potential impact on the health of populations and the resources of health systems.

Conclusions:

The prevalence of risk factors for this pre-clinical state could be high and these patients would merit, per recommendation of certain evidence, screening for left ventricular systolic dysfunction, as well as additional studies are required.

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