Association between right ventricular strain and outcomes in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy

OBJECTIVE: To explore the association between three-dimensional (3D) cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) feature tracking (FT) right ventricular peak global longitudinal strain (RVpGLS) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in patients with stage C or D heart failure (HF) with non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy (NIDCM) but without atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS: Patients with dilated cardiomyopathy were enrolled in this prospective cohort study. Comprehensive clinical and biochemical analysis and CMR imaging were performed. All patients were followed up for MACEs. RESULTS: A total of 192 patients (age 53±14 years) were eligible for this study. A combination of cardiovascular death and cardiac transplantation occurred in 18 subjects during the median follow-up of 567 (311, 920) days. Brain natriuretic peptide, creatinine, left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic volume, LV end-systolic volume, right ventricular (RV) end-diastolic volume and RVpGLS from CMR were associated with the outcomes. The multivariate Cox regression model adjusting for traditional risk factors and CMR variables detected a significant association between RVpGLS and MACEs in patients with stage C or D HF with NIDCM without AF. Kaplan-Meier analysis based on RVpGLS cut-off value revealed that patients with RVpGLS <−8.5% showed more favourable clinical outcomes than those with RVpGLS ≥−8.5% (p=0.0037). Subanalysis found that this association remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: RVpGLS-derived from 3D CMR FT is associated with a significant prognostic impact in patients with NIDCM with stage C or D HF and without AF.