Incremental Value of Three-Dimensional Echocardiography in the Evaluation of Left Ventricular Size in Mitral Regurgitation: A Follow-Up Study after Mitral Valve Surgery

Risks factors of adverse clinical outcomes in asymptomatic mitral regurgitation patients with preserved ejection fraction: a systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE

Indication for mitral valve (MV) surgery in asymptomatic mitral regurgitation (MR) patients with preserved ejection fraction (EF) remains unclear. This study aims to identify risk factors of adverse clinical outcomes in asymptomatic MR patients with preserved EF for early indication of MV surgery.

METHODS

3 databases were systematically searched to include studies with asymptomatic MR patients with preserved EF. Risk factors of adverse clinical outcomes (composite outcome of MACE and MV surgery indication), mortality, and left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) are pooled with a meta-analysis of random effect model.

RESULTS

A total of 39 observational studies with 9135 asymptomatic moderate to severe MR patients are included. We identified 21 statistically significant risk factors for adverse outcomes. Increased natriuretic peptide, presence of atrial fibrillation, LV GLS > 20%, LVEDD > 35 mm, LVESD > 22 mm, and LAVI > 55 ml/mm2, ERO > 55mm2, and regurgitation volume > 60 ml (HR 2.21, 2.07, 4.23, 2.98, 4.05, 1.84, 4.02, 3.30, respectively; p-value < 0.05; I2 0-87%) are associated with greater risk of adverse clinical outcome. Risk factors associated with postoperative LVD are the increase of LVEDD, LVESD, and RVSP. Risk factors associated with mortality are increasing STS score and LV GLS.

CONCLUSION

Several clinical parameters and risk factors can be used to stratify asymptomatic MR patients with preserved ejection fraction who could benefit from early indication for MV surgery.

Association of outcome with left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction measured with two- and three-dimensional echocardiography in patients referred for routine, clinically indicated studies

Objectives

We sought to analyze if left ventricular (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (EF) measured by three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) have incremental prognostic value over measurements obtained from two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) in patients referred to a high-volume echocardiography laboratory for routine, clinically-indicated studies.

Methods

We measured LV volumes and EF using both 2DE and 3DE in 725 consecutive patients (67% men; 59 ± 18 years) with various clinical indications referred for a routine clinical study.

Results

LV volumes were significantly larger, and EF was lower when measured by 3DE than 2DE. During follow-up (3.6 ± 1.2 years), 111 (15.3%) all-cause deaths and 248 (34.2%) cardiac hospitalizations occurred. Larger LV volumes and lower EF were associated with worse outcome independent of age, creatinine, hemoglobin, atrial fibrillation, and ischemic heart diseases). In stepwise Cox regression analyses, the associations of both death and cardiac hospitalization with clinical data (CD: age, creatinine, hemoglobin, atrial fibrillation, and ischemic heart disease) whose Harrel's C-index (HC) was 0.775, were augmented more by the LV volumes and EF obtained by 3DE than by 2DE parameters. The association of CD with death was not affected by LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) either measured by 2DE or 3DE. Conversely, it was incremented by 3DE LVEF (HC = 0.84, p < 0.001) more than 2DE LVEF (HC = 0.814, p < 0.001). The association of CD with the composite endpoint (HC = 0.64, p = 0.002) was augmented more by 3DE LV EDV (HC = 0.786, p < 0.001), end-systolic volume (HC = 0.801, p < 0.001), and EF (HC = 0.84, p < 0.001) than by the correspondent 2DE parameters (HC = 0.786, HC = 0.796, and 0.84, all p < 0.001) In addition, partition values for mild, moderate and severe reduction of the LVEF measured by 3DE showed a higher discriminative power than those measured by 2DE for cardiac death (Log-Rank: χ² = 98.3 vs. χ² = 77.1; p < 0.001). Finally, LV dilation defined according to the 3DE threshold values showed higher discriminatory power and prognostic value for death than when using 2DE reference values (3DE LVEDV: χ² = 15.9, p < 0.001 vs. χ² = 10.8, p = 0.001; 3DE LVESV: χ² = 24.4, p < 0.001 vs. χ² = 17.4, p = 0.001).

Conclusion

In patients who underwent routine, clinically-indicated echocardiography, 3DE LVEF and ESV showed stronger association with outcome than the corresponding 2DE parameters.

Three-dimensional echocardiography to assess left ventricular geometry and function

Introduction: Quantification of left ventricular (LV) size and function represents the most frequent indication for an echocardiographic study. New echocardiographic techniques have been developed over the last decades in an attempt to provide a more comprehensive, accurate, and reproducible assessment of LV function.Areas covered: Although two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) is the recommended imaging modality to evaluate the LV, three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) has proven to be more accurate, by avoiding geometric assumptions about LV geometry, and to have incremental value for outcome prediction in comparison to conventional 2DE. LV shape (sphericity) and mass are actually measured with 3DE. Myocardial deformation analysis using 3DE can early detect subclinical LV dysfunction, before any detectable change in LV ejection fraction.Expert opinion: 3DE eliminates the errors associated with foreshortening and geometric assumptions inherent to 2DE and 3DE measurements approach very closely those obtained by CMR (the current reference modality), while maintaining the unique clinical advantage of a safe, highly cost/effective, portable imaging technique, available to the cardiologist at bedside to translate immediately the echocardiography findings into the clinical decision-making process.

Ventricular remodeling in ischemic heart failure stratifies responders to stem cell therapy

Response to stem cell therapy in heart failure is heterogeneous, warranting a better understanding of outcome predictors. This study assessed left ventricular volume, a surrogate of disease severity, on cell therapy benefit. Small to large infarctions were induced in murine hearts to model moderate, advanced, and end‐stage ischemic cardiomyopathy. At 1 month postinfarction, cardiomyopathic cohorts with comparable left ventricular enlargement and dysfunction were randomized 1:1 to those that either received sham treatment or epicardial delivery of cardiopoietic stem cells (CP). Progressive dilation and pump failure consistently developed in sham. In comparison, CP treatment produced significant benefit at 1 month post‐therapy, albeit with an efficacy impacted by cardiomyopathic stage. Advanced ischemic cardiomyopathy was the most responsive to CP‐mediated salvage, exhibiting both structural and functional restitution, with proteome deconvolution substantiating that cell therapy reversed infarction‐induced remodeling of functional pathways. Moderate cardiomyopathy was less responsive to CP therapy, improving contractility but without reversing preexistent heart enlargement. In end‐stage disease, CP therapy showed the least benefit. This proof‐of‐concept study thus demonstrates an optimal window, or “Goldilocks principle,” of left ventricular enlargement for maximized stem cell‐based cardiac repair. Disease severity grading, prior to cell therapy, should be considered to inform regenerative medicine interventions.