Right Ventricular Free Wall Strain and Effect of Defibrillator Implantation in Patients With Nonischemic Systolic Heart Failure

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • MARIE BAYER Elming
  • DAVID HELLEMANN JENSEN
  • ULRIK CHRISTIAN WINSLØW
  • NIELS RISUM
  • JAWAD HAIDER BUTT
  • ADELINA YAFASOVA
  • J. E.N.S. HAARBO
  • BERIT THORNVIG PHILBERT
  • Svendsen, Jesper Hastrup
  • STEEN PEHRSON
  • L. A.R.S. KØBER
  • JENS JAKOB THUNE

Background: Patients with nonischemic systolic heart failure have an increased risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiovascular death. Because the risk is less pronounced than for patients with ischemic cause of heart failure more discriminating tools are needed to identify patients most likely to benefit from implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation. Right ventricular (RV) dysfunction is associated with a worse prognosis, but whether RV free wall strain (RV-FWS) measured with echocardiography can identify the patients most likely to benefit from ICD implantation is not known. Methods and Results: In this extended follow-up analysis of the Danish Study to Assess the Efficacy of ICDs in Patients with Non-ischemic Systolic Heart Failure on Mortality (DANISH) trial, RV-FWS was measured with echocardiography in 445 patients before randomization. RV dysfunction was defined as an RV-FWS of greater than –20%. The primary end point was all-cause mortality. The median RV-FWS was –18% (quartiles –23% to –14%), and RV dysfunction was measured in 255 patients (57%). During a median follow-up of 5.7 years, 170 patients (38%) died. There was a statistically significant interaction between RV dysfunction and the effect of ICD implantation (P = .003), also after adjusting for known cardiovascular risk factors (P = .01). ICD implantation significantly decreased all-cause mortality in patients with RV dysfunction (hazard ratio 0.54, 95% confidence interval 0.36-0.80, P = .002), but not in patients with normal RV function (hazard ratio 1.34, 95% confidence interval 0.84-2.12, P = .22). Conclusions: In patients with nonischemic systolic heart failure, RV dysfunction on echocardiography was associated with a greater effect of ICD implantation and could be used to select patients with benefit from ICD treatment.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Cardiac Failure
Volume29
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)883-892
Number of pages10
ISSN1071-9164
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The DANISH trial was supported by grants from The Danish Heart Foundation (Hjerteforeningen), Medtronic, and St. Jude Medical .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Inc.

    Research areas

  • echocardiography, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), Nonischemic systolic heart failure, right ventricular free wall strain, right ventricular function, strain analysis

ID: 388035920