Predictors of Cardiovascular Death in Patients with a Left Ventricular Restrictive Filling Pattern of the Mitral Inflow

Abstract

The survival, clinical and echocardiographic variables and the predictors of cardiovascular death were determined for a group of 168 patients (mean age 63 ± 13 years; 65 females; mean left ventricular ejection fraction 32 ± 10%) with restrictive filling of the left ventricle and depressed systolic function after a mean follow-up period of 2.7 ± 1 years. Shorter deceleration time (DT) of the mitral inflow was the only variable significantly different between survivors and nonsurvivors (p < 0.05) and the only predictor of death found by multivariate logistic regression analysis (odds ratio 2.2, 95% confidence interval 1.7–3.6). In this patient population, a DT of the early wave of the mitral inflow <140 ms identified the patients with the highest risk of cardiac death. DT is a practical echocardiographic parameter for risk stratification of patients with significant left ventricular systolic dysfunction and restrictive filling of the left ventricle.