Non-Severe Aortic Regurgitation Increases Short-Term Mortality in Acute Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction

Aims Mild or moderate aortic regurgitation (AR) has only little effect on cardiovascular outcome in people with normal left ventricular ejection fraction (EF); therefore, it is not perceived as a major clinical problem. This study investigates whether mild or moderate AR is associated with increased short-term mortality in patients hospitalized for treatment of acute heart failure (AHF) and whether mild or moderate AR impacts differently on short-term mortality in AHF patients with reduced EF (AHFrEF), mid-range EF (AHFmrEF), or preserved EF (AHFpEF). Methods and results This mono-centric study included 505 consecutive adult patients hospitalized for de novo or worsening chronic HF not related to acute ischaemia or severe valvular pathology in the echocardiogram at index hospitalization. Cox regression analysis studied the impact of AR on all-cause mortality (ACM) over the 150 days' study period. Mild or moderate AR was associated with increased ACM (HR 1.75 [95% CI: 1.1–2.7]; P = 0.009). The prevalence of mild or moderate AR in the study population was 42% and not significantly different between AHFpEF (n = 227), AHFmrEF (n = 86), and AHFrEF (n = 192) study participants (37.9% vs. 50.0% vs. 42.7%; P = 0.144). In AHFpEF patients, the age-adjusted hazard for ACM was increased in patients with AR compared with patients without AR (HR 2.17 [95% CI: 1.1–4.2]; P = 0.002). The age-adjusted hazard for ACM was increased by a trend in AHFmrEF with AR (HR 7.11, [95% CI: 0.9–57.8]; P = 0.067) and not different between the AHFrEF groups (HR 0.95 [95% CI: 0.5–1.8]; P = 0.875). Conclusions Mild or moderate AR increased ACM only in AHFpEF patients, highlighting a distinct clinical relevance.