Abstract 2281: Mitral E Wave Deceleration Time to Peak E Velocity Ratio And Cardiovascular Outcome in Hypertensive Patients During Anti-Hypertensive Treatment: the LIFE Echo-Substudy.

Abstract

Background: Early mitral flow deceleration time (DTE) is a prognostically validated marker of LV chamber stiffness. However, for any given LV stiffness, a higher E peak velocity (E) is associated with longer DTE, suggesting that the prognostic relevance of DTE might be influenced by variations in cardiac preload (e.g. during anti-hypertensive treatment). It is not known whether normalization of deceleration time for E-velocity (DTE/E) might be a more stable diastolic index for prediction of incident cardiovascular (CV) events in hypertensive patients during treatment, as compared to DTE. Methods: We evaluated 770 hypertensive patients (66±7 years; 42% women) with ECG-LV hypertrophy enrolled in the LIFE echo-substudy. Echocardiographic exams were performed annually for 5 years during anti-hypertensive treatment. Prognostic value of basal DTE/E was preliminary evaluated. Variation over time of both DTE/E and DTE were therefore analyzed in relation to incident combined fatal and non-fatal CV events. Results: During follow-up, 69 CV events occurred (9% of study population). Mean basal DTE/pE was 3.55±1.55 sec 2 /cm*10 −3. In univariate analysis baseline DTE/E was associated positively with age (r=0.10; p<0.01), relative wall thickness (r=0.13; p<0.01) and isovolumic relaxation time (r=0.26; p<0.001) and negatively with heart rate (r=−0.20; p<0.001); no association was found with systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, LV mass or ejection fraction. Unadjusted Cox regression showed a positive association between baseline DTE/E and CV events [(HR=1.21 (95%CI= 1.07–1.37); p=0.002]. In time-varying Cox model, independently of age, gender, type of anti-hypertensive treatment and in-treatment heart rate, higher in-treatment DTE/E was associated with higher rate of CV events [(HR=1.26 (95%CI= 1.04 –1.80); p<0.026], whereas no association was found for in-treatment DTE (p=NS). Conclusions: In a population of treated hypertensive patients with ECG-LV hypertrophy, the ratio of in-treatment DTE/E, but not DTE alone, independently predicts incident CV events. In high-risk hypertensive patients, normalization of DTE for E peak velocity might be preferred to DTE in evaluating diastolic function during anti-hypertensive treatment.