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.