Usefulness of right ventricular tissue Doppler imaging to predict outcome in left ventricular heart failure independent of left ventricular diastolic function.

It is unknown whether right ventricular (RV) tissue Doppler (TD) predicts outcome in patients with left ventricular (LV) heart failure (HF) independently of contemporary echocardiographic Doppler variables of LV diastolic function. Comprehensive echocardiographic Doppler examination was performed before discharge in 107 patients hospitalized with LV HF. The primary end point was cardiac death or rehospitalization for HF. Follow-up was complete for 100 of 107 patients a mean of 527 days after hospital discharge. There were no significant differences in baseline clinical variables (mean age 58+/-12 years, 46% women, 77% hypertensive, 48% diabetic, 41% current smokers, and 23% known coronary artery disease) in prediction of the primary end point. Compared with patients without an event, patients with an event had a larger left atrial volume index (42+/-16 vs 33+/-13 ml/m2, p=0.001), lower LV ejection fraction (35+/-19% vs 46+/-22%, p=0.01), higher mitral peak early diastolic flow velocity/TD early diastolic velocity (19+/-7 vs 14+/-7, p=0.001), lower RV fractional area change (39+/-11% vs 43+/-10%, p=0.04), and lower RV TD systolic velocity (8+/-2 vs 10+/-3 cm/s, p=0.005). On Cox proportional hazards multivariate analysis, left atrial volume index (p=0.01), mitral peak early diastolic flow velocity/TD early diastolic velocity (p=0.03), and RV TD systolic velocity (p=0.04) were independent predictors of outcome. Even when contemporary echocardiographic Doppler measures of LV diastolic function are considered, RV TD systolic velocity is an independent predictor of cardiac death or rehospitalization for HF in patients hospitalized with HF and appears to be superior to conventional 2-dimensional parameters of RV function.