Left ventricular long-axis performance during exercise is an important prognosticator in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction.

BACKGROUND: Although many prognostic variables have been reported, the risk stratification of patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF) has long been controversial due to considerable discordance. Ergometry stress echocardiography may provide a more clinical relevant evaluation in HFPEF. We aimed at evaluating the prognostic value of echocardiographic parameters during exercise in HFPEF patients. METHODS: Comprehensive echocardiographic examination with symptom-limited exercise testing on a semi-recumbent and tilting bicycle Ergometer (Lode BV, Groningen, the Netherlands) was performed on 80 consecutive HFPEF patients (aged 66±8years; 64% male). The exercise images for two-dimensional (2D) speckle tracking analysis were acquired with heart rate of 90-100bpm, while exercise images for tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and M-mode echocardiography were stored with attainment of >85% of maximal age-predicted heart rate. All patients were followed up for 3years after stress echocardiography for all-cause mortality and/or heart failure (HF) hospitalization. RESULTS: During the follow-up, 43 (54%) patients reached the combined end point: 5 (6%) patients died, and another 38 (48%) patients experienced HF hospitalizations. Univariate predictors were: decreased resting left atrial ejection fraction (LAEF), lower peak heart rate, elevated E/e' ratio, reduced TDI myocardial velocities, and impaired 2D global longitudinal strain (GLS) during exercise. Only impaired GLS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.79, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.67 to 0.91) remained independent after multivariate analysis (p=0.008). CONCLUSIONS: More than half of the HFPEF patients died or were hospitalized for HF at 3-year follow-up and this was significantly related to impaired left ventricular long-axis function during exercise.

Changes of ventricular and peripheral performance in patients with heart failure and normal ejection fraction: insights from ergometry stress echocardiography.

AIMS: We assessed the left ventricular (LV) and peripheral performance at rest and during exercise in healthy and heart failure subjects with normal ejection fraction (HFNEF) or with reduced ejection fraction (HFREF). METHODS: All subjects received echocardiography at rest and with bicycle Ergometer exercise. The exercise images for two-dimensional speckle tracking were acquired with submaximal heart rate of 90-100 beats/min, while images for M-mode and tissue Doppler imaging were stored with attainment of >85% of predicted heart rate. RESULTS: A total of 80 HFNEF, 50 HFREF and 50 controls were studied. There was progressive decrease of two-dimensional global circumferential, radial and longitudinal strains (GCS, GRS and GLS), M-mode and tissue Doppler imaging long-axis parameters from controls, HFNEF to HFREF patients (all P < 0.05) at rest and on exercise. The degree of exercise-induced, long-axis augmentation (GLS and M-mode long axis excursion) decreased progressively from controls, HFNEF to HFREF subjects (all P < 0.05), while the increase in GCS and GRS was similar in all groups. The ventricular-arterial coupling ratio did not change in HFREF but reduced in HFNEF and controls during exercise (P < 0.01). All subjects had a similar resting heart rate, but patients exhibited chronotropic non-competence during exercise (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Ventricular and peripheral dysfunction was evident in HFNEF at rest and deteriorated during exercise. The HFNEF patients had significantly impaired long-axis augmentation at stress that was intermediate between HFREF patients and controls. These findings have relevance to generation of symptoms on exercise in both HFNEF and HFREF.

Diverse patterns of longitudinal and radial dyssynchrony in patients with advanced systolic heart failure.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the impact of QRS duration and aetiology of heart failure on the pattern of left ventricular long- and short-axis dyssynchrony. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of QRS duration and aetiology of heart failure on the pattern of left ventricular long- and short-axis dyssynchrony using tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and two-dimensional (2D) speckle tracking imaging. METHODS: 448 patients with heart failure (aged 65 ± 12 years, 75% men) with ejection fraction ≤ 35% from two cardiac centres were examined for the occurrence of longitudinal dyssynchrony by TDI, and for radial dyssynchrony by 2D speckle tracking imaging. Region(s) of the latest mechanical contraction were also determined. RESULTS: Longitudinal dyssynchrony was identified in 263 (59%) patients and radial dyssynchrony in 185 (41%). 125 (28%) patients had both longitudinal and radial dyssynchrony, 138 (31%) had only longitudinal, 60 (13%) had only radial, and 124 (28%) had neither form of dyssynchrony. TDI showed that the single most delayed segment was the septal, lateral, anterior, inferior, anteroseptal and posterior wall in 12%, 27%, 12%, 19%, 7% and 13% of patients, respectively, while multisegmental delay occurred in 10% of patients. These figures were 10%, 8%, 5%, 10%, 12%, 14% and 41%, respectively, using 2D speckle tracking. When compared between patients with wide and narrow QRS complexes, both longitudinal (63% vs 53%) and radial (49% vs 36%) dyssynchrony parameters were more frequently positive in the wide QRS group defined by QRS duration ≥ 120 ms (both p < 0.05). When compared between non-ischaemic and ischaemic patients, the prevalence of longitudinal dyssynchrony was comparable (61% vs 57%, p = 0.467), while radial dyssynchrony was marginally more common in the non-ischaemic group (47% vs 37%, p = 0.049). However, the distributions of the most delayed segment between the subgroups were similar when assessed by the same echocardiographic method. CONCLUSION: In patients with advanced systolic heart failure, the patterns of longitudinal and radial dyssynchrony are heterogeneous, and mechanical dyssynchrony tends to be more prevalent in the wide QRS group and the non-ischaemic group.