Role of Right Ventricular Systolic Function on Long-Term Outcome in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Systolic Heart Failure

Background: Right ventricular (RV) systolic function has been recognized as a prognostic factor in endstage heart failure (HF) patients and in the present study we evaluated the effect of this dysfunction on prognosis in patients with newly-diagnosed systolic HF. Methods and Results: We enrolled 180 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed systolic HF (ischemic or dilated cardiomyopathy). Echocardiographic evaluation was performed to assess biventricular function. Pulse-wave tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) readings were obtained from the lateral tricuspid annulus and the peak systolic annular velocity (Sty) was recorded. Patients were followed for a 2-year period and events (death or HF hospitalization) were recorded. During the follow-up, 79 patients (44%) had an adverse event. An inverse relationship was observed between the height of Sty and the probability of an event (odds ratio (OR) 0.716, 95% confidence interval (Cl) 0.583-0.880, P=0.001), after controlling for potential confounders. Furthermore, creatinine clearance (CrCl) was inversely associated with the outcome: a 1-unit increase in CrCl was associated with a 0.98-times lower likelihood of having an event. When the analysis was stratified by CrCl <60 ml/min or >= 60 ml/min, Sty predicted adverse events in both groups (CrCl <60 ml/min: OR 0.62, 95%CI 0.39-0.98, P=0.04; CrCl >= 60 ml/min: OR 0.78, 95%CI 0.61-1.01, P=0.06). Conclusions: Pulse-wave TDI readings of peak systolic velocity at the lateral tricuspid annulus, reflecting RV systolic function, has prognostic significance in newly-diagnosed systolic HF patients. (Circ J 2011; 75: 2176-2181)