Impact of pregnancy on the natural history of women with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

AIMS

Whether pregnancy is a modifier of the long-term course and outcome of women with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is unknown. We assessed the association of pregnancy with long-term outcomes in HCM women.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Retrospective evaluation of women with HCM from 1970 to 2021. Only women with pregnancy-related information (pregnancy present or absent) and a follow-up period lasting ≥1 year were included. The peri-partum period was defined as -1 to 6 months after delivery. The primary endpoint was a composite for major adverse cardiovascular events [MACE: cardiovascular death, sudden cardiac death, appropriate defibrillator shock and heart failure (HF) progression]. Overall, 379 (58%) women were included. There were 432 pregnancies in 242 (63%) patients. In 29 (7.6%) cases, pregnancies (n = 39) occurred after HCM diagnosis. Among these, three carrying likely pathogenic sarcomeric variants suffered MACEs in the peri-partum period. At 10 ± 9 years of follow-up, age at diagnosis [hazard ratio (HR) 1.034, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.018-1.050, P < 0.001] and New York Heart Association (NYHA) class (II vs. I: HR 1.944, 95% CI 0.896-4.218; III vs. I: HR 5.291, 95% CI 2.392-11.705, P < 0.001) were associated with MACE. Conversely, pregnancy was associated with reduced risk (HR 0.605; 95% CI 0.380-0.963, P = 0.034). Among women with pregnancy, multiple occurrences did not modify risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Pregnancy is not a modifier of long-term outcome in women with HCM and mostly occurs before a cardiac diagnosis. Most patients tolerate pregnancy well and do not show a survival disadvantage compared to women without. Pregnancy should not be discouraged, except in the presence of severe HF symptoms or high-risk features.

Long-term prognostic impact of subclinical myocardial dysfunction in patients recovered from COVID-19

BACKGROUND

Cardiovascular sequelae may occur in patients recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Recent studies have detected a considerable incidence of subclinical myocardial dysfunction-assessed with speckle-tracking echocardiography-and of long-COVID symptoms in these patients. This study aimed to define the long-term prognostic role of subclinical myocardial dysfunction and long-COVID condition in patients recovered from COVID-19 pneumonia.

METHODS

We prospectively followed up 110 patients hospitalized at our institution due to COVID-19 pneumonia in April 2020 and then recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection. A 7-month clinical and echocardiographic evaluation was performed, followed by a 21-month clinical follow-up. The primary outcome was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), a composite of myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure hospitalization, and all-cause mortality.

RESULTS

A subclinical myocardial dysfunction-defined as an impairment of left ventricular global longitudinal strain (≥-18%)-was identified at a 7-month follow-up in 37 patients (34%), was associated with an increased risk of long-term MACE with a good discriminative power (area under the curve: .73) and resulted in a strong independent predictor of extended MACE in multivariate regression analyses. Long-COVID condition was not associated with a worse long-term prognosis, instead.

CONCLUSIONS

In patients recovered from COVID-19 pneumonia, a subclinical myocardial dysfunction is present in one-third of the whole population at 7-month follow-up and is associated with a higher risk of MACE at long-term follow-up. Speckle-tracking echocardiography is a promising tool to optimize the risk-stratification in patients recovered from COVID-19 pneumonia, while the definition of a long-COVID condition has no prognostic relevance.

144 LONG-TERM PROGNOSTIC IMPACT OF SUBCLINICAL MYOCARDIAL DYSFUNCTION IN PATIENTS RECOVERED FROM COVID-19

Aims

Cardiovascular sequelae may occur in patients recovered from COVID-19. Recent studies have detected a considerable incidence of subclinical myocardial dysfunction – assessed with speckle-tracking echocardiography – and of long-COVID symptoms in these patients. This study aimed to define the long-term prognostic role of subclinical myocardial dysfunction and long-COVID condition in patients recovered from COVID-19 pneumonia.

Methods and Results

We prospectively followed-up 110 patients hospitalized at our Institution due to COVID-19 pneumonia in April 2020 and then recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection. A 6-month clinical and echocardiographic evaluation was performed, followed by a 21-month clinical follow-up. The primary outcome was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), a composite of myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure hospitalization and all-cause mortality. A subclinical myocardial dysfunction – defined as an impairment of left ventricular global longitudinal strain (≥ -18%) - was identified at 6-month follow-up in 37 patients (34%), was associated with an increased risk of long-term MACE with a good discriminative power (AUC: 0.73) and resulted a strong independent predictor of extended MACE in a multivariate regression analysis (OR 9.29, 95%CI 2.20–39.3, p=0.002). Long-COVID condition was not associated with a worse long-term prognosis, instead.

Conclusion

In patients recovered from COVID-19 pneumonia, a subclinical myocardial dysfunction is present in one third of the whole population at 6-month follow-up and is associated with a higher risk of MACE at long-term follow-up. Speckle-tracking echocardiography is a promising tool to optimise the risk-stratification in patients recovered from COVID-19 pneumonia, while the definition of a long-COVID condition has not prognostic relevance.

Clinical course and outcome of pregnancy in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic cardiomyopathy. However, few studies have systematically investigated the clinical course of pregnancy in HCM.

Purpose

To determine whether pregnancy is well tolerated in HCM.

Methods

Women consecutively referred to our Tertiary Clinic for Cardiomyopathies from 1969 to

2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Only women with complete data regarding pregnancy and with a follow up (FU)&gt;1 year were included in the study. Overall, of the 647 women followed at our center, 378 (58%) fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Demographic, clinical and instrumental records were retrieved. The peripartum period was defined as the timeframe from −1 to 6 months after delivery.

Results

There were 433 pregnancies in 239 (63%) women with 132 (62%) having &gt;1 pregnancy. By contrast, 139 (37%) reported no pregnancy or miscarriages: in 6 cases pregnancy was discouraged due to advanced disease stage. Twenty-eight (12%) women had 39 pregnancies after HCM diagnosis and were followed by the obstetrics department: this subset was significantly younger at diagnosis (age at diagnosis: 21 [13–29] vs 56 [47–66] vs 45 [24–62] years, p&lt;0.001, in women with a pregnancy after diagnosis vs women diagnosed after the pregnancy vs women with no pregnancy, respectively). Instrumental characteristics were comparable among women. Thirty percent presented with obstructive physiology at baseline. Among the 39 pregnancies in women who had a pregnancy after the diagnosis, there were 3 reported episodes of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, one sustained ventricular tachycardia with pulse and three episodes of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia in the peripartum period. In this cohort, prevalence of intra-uterine growth delay and miscarriage was 8%. Only 3 women experienced a worsening clinical profile requiring hospitalization during the peripartum period: 2 were hospitalized for acute heart failure (AHF) and 1 was experienced a resuscitated cardiac arrest. Of note, 2/3 of patients were carriers of a (likely)pathogenic troponin mutation.

Long-term (FU: 5±3 years), nulligravida women were more symptomatic at last evaluation (NYHA III/IV: 25 vs 17, p&lt;0.05), reported a higher incidence of ICD appropriate shocks (26 vs 12%p=0.02) but had similar rates of heart transplant (2.1 vs 0.5%, p=0.143) and episodes of AHF (12 vs 14%, p=0.193). Eighteen patients (8.2%) died: incidence of cardiovascular mortality was 4.8%, with a lower rate in patients who reported a pregnancy (0.8%/year vs 2.8%/year, p=0.01).

Conclusions

Women with HCM tolerate pregnancy well. Rare complications occurred in the peripartum period which were manageable. In the long-term, pregnancy, even when multiple, did not influence the long-term course of the disease nor its outcome. Strategies to support appropriate counselling and antenatal care should be implemented to identify those at greater risk of disease progression.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: None.