Exercise Capacity and Clinical Outcomes in Chronic Heart Failure Patients with Mild Tricuspid Regurgitation

Aim: The present study aimed to investigate the impact of mild tricuspid regurgitation (TR) on the exercise capacity or clinical outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Methods and Results: The study enrolled 511 patients with CHF who underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) between 2013 and 2018. The primary outcome was a composite of heart failure hospitalization and death. Patients with mild TR (n = 324) or significant TR (moderate or greater; n = 60) displayed worse NHYA class and reduced exercise capacity on CPET than those with non-TR (n = 127), but these were more severely impaired in patients with significant TR. A total of 90 patients experienced events over a median follow-up period of 3.3 (interquartile range 0.8–5.5) years. Patients with significant TR displayed a higher risk of events, while patients with mild TR had a 3.0-fold higher risk of events than patients with non-TR (hazard ratio (HR) 3.01; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.50–6.07). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that, compared with non-TR, mild TR was associated with increased adverse events, even after adjustment for co-variates (HR 2.97; 95% CI, 1.35–6.55). Conclusions: TR severity was associated with worse symptoms, reduced exercise capacity, and poor clinical outcomes. Even patients with mild TR had worse clinical characteristics than those with non-TR.