Prevalence and determinants of systolic and diastolic cardiac dysfunction and heart failure in acute ischemic stroke patients: The SICFAIL study

AIMS: Ischaemic stroke (IS) might induce alterations of cardiac function. Prospective data on frequency of cardiac dysfunction and heart failure (HF) after IS are lacking. We assessed prevalence and determinants of diastolic dysfunction (DD), systolic dysfunction (SD), and HF in patients with acute IS. METHODS AND RESULTS: The Stroke‐Induced Cardiac FAILure in mice and men (SICFAIL) study is a prospective, hospital‐based cohort study. Patients with IS underwent a comprehensive assessment of cardiac function in the acute phase (median 4 days after IS) including clinical examination, standardized transthoracic echocardiography by expert sonographers, and determination of blood‐based biomarkers. Information on demographics, lifestyle, risk factors, symptoms suggestive of HF, and medical history was collected by a standardized personal interview. Applying current guidelines, cardiac dysfunction was classified based on echocardiographic criteria into SD (left ventricular ejection fraction < 52% in men or <54% in women) and DD (≥3 signs of DD in patients without SD). Clinically overt HF was classified into HF with reduced, mid‐range, or preserved ejection fraction. Between January 2014 and February 2017, 696 IS patients were enrolled. Of them, patients with sufficient echocardiographic data on SD were included in the analyses {n = 644 patients [median age 71 years (interquartile range 60–78), 61.5% male]}. In these patients, full assessment of DD was feasible in 549 patients without SD (94%). Prevalence of cardiac dysfunction and HF was as follows: SD 9.6% [95% confidence interval (CI) 7.6–12.2%]; DD in patients without SD 23.3% (95% CI 20.0–27.0%); and clinically overt HF 5.4% (95% CI 3.9–7.5%) with subcategories of HF with preserved ejection fraction 4.35%, HF with mid‐range ejection fraction 0.31%, and HF with reduced ejection fraction 0.78%. In multivariable analysis, SD and fulfilment of HF criteria were associated with history of coronary heart disease [SD: odds ratio (OR) 3.87, 95% CI 1.93–7.75, P = 0.0001; HF: OR 2.29, 95% CI 1.04–5.05, P = 0.0406] and high‐sensitive troponin T at baseline (SD: OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.31–2.42, P = 0.0003; HF: OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.17–2.33, P = 0.004); DD was associated with older age (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.05–1.11, P < 0.0001) and treated hypertension vs. no hypertension (OR 2.84, 95% CI 1.23–6.54, P = 0.0405). CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of the study population exhibited subclinical and clinical cardiac dysfunction. SICFAIL provides reliable data on prevalence and determinants of SD, DD, and clinically overt HF in patients with acute IS according to current guidelines, enabling further clarification of its aetiological and prognostic role.