Study: Higher Mortality Risk Seen in Patients with LV Diastolic Dysfunction

Left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction was associated with higher mortality, new study results suggest.  

“Primary cardiac affection is common and is a major cause of death in systemic sclerosis, but there are knowledge gaps regarding the effect of cardiac dysfunction on mortality,” the authors wrote. 

Researchers evaluating diastolic function in a large, unselected systemic sclerosis cohort and the effects of diastolic dysfunction on mortality assessed 275 patients with systemic sclerosis (diagnosed via echocardiography) at baseline and 186 patients at study follow up. The authors also collected vital statistics and conducted Cox regression analyses with hazard ratios. Median follow-up.

What does diastolic dysfunction mean for outcomes in systemic sclerosis? https://t.co/JPMNjHmAlF #JACC pic.twitter.com/SX6Y7RbWq3

— JACC Journals (@JACCJournals) October 6, 2018

According to the results, 17% of patients with systemic sclerosis were diagnosed with diastolic dysfunction. After follow-up, that proportion had increased to 29%. In all, 57% of the patients with diastolic dysfunction at baseline died, compared to 13% of patients with normal diastolic function. Following multivariate regression analyses, diastolic dysfunction was a stronger predictor of death than pulmonary hypertension (HR=3.7; 95% CI, 1.69 to 8.14; c-index 0.89 versus HR=2.0; 95% CI, 1.1 to 3.9; c-index 0.84, respectively). 

“Diastolic dysfunction is frequent in systemic sclerosis, and the presence of diastolic dysfunction is associated with high mortality,” the researchers concluded. “Diastolic dysfunction exceeds pulmonary hypertension with respect to predicting mortality.” 

“DD is frequent in SSc, and the presence of DD is associated with high mortality. DD exceeds PH with respect to predicting mortality”. https://t.co/EBnNGGFx0c

— Jose Martinez (@jocmaximiliano) October 3, 2018

Impressive JACC paper by the systemic sclerosis group – now find the link to the gut! https://t.co/jZBNqRmhbT

— Johannes E. R. Hov (@hov_jer) October 2, 2018

A very important question addressed by Prof. Anna Hoffmann-Vold’s group. Congratulations for this nice study! https://t.co/ATW1TEkmpD

— EUSTAR (@EUSTAR_org) October 2, 2018

Source: Journal of the American College of Cardiology