Prognostic value of heart failure echocardiography index in HF patients with preserved, mid-ranged and reduced ejection fraction

BACKGROUND: To investigate the clinical value of heart failure echocardiography index (HFEI) in evaluating the cardiac function and predicting the prognosis of patients with different types of heart failure (HF). METHODS: Four hundred eighty-nine consecutively admitted HF patients were divided into three groups: HF with reduced ejection (HFrEF), HF with mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF), and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The baseline characteristics and ultrasound indexes were compared between the three groups. The correlation between HFEI and one-year risk of adverse events was compared by multivariate logistic regression. The clinical value of HFEI and plasma level of NT-proBNP in assessing the prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) was analyzed by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS: HFEI in HFrEF was significantly higher than that in HFmrEF and HFpEF. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that HFEI and plasma level of NT-proBNP were independent risk factors for predicting the short-time prognosis of HF patients. The ROC curve indicated that the HFEI cutoff level of 3.5 and the plasma NT-proBNP level of 3000 pg/ml predicted a poor prognosis of CHF patients with a sensitivity of 64% and a specificity of 75% vs. 68 and 65%. CONCLUSION: HFEI can comprehensively evaluate the overall cardiac function of patients with various types of HF, and may prove to be an important index of assessing the prognosis of HF patients.