Myocardial recovery after percutaneous coronary intervention in coronary artery disease patients with impaired systolic function- predictive utility of global longitudinal strain

OBJECTIVE: Coronary revascularization is associated with better outcomes in coronary artery disease patients. We aim to investigate the prevalence, and factors associated with left ventricular (LV) improvement following successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of patients with impaired systolic function with specific reference to the value of baseline GLS. METHODS: This retrospective study reviewed the records of coronary artery disease patients with impaired systolic function who were admitted and treated with PCI. RESULT: Out of 420 consecutive acute coronary syndrome patients with an impaired systolic function who were admitted and treated with PCI during the period from January 2021 to December 2021, 147 patients (35%) showed no improvement in the Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) post PCI and 273 patients (65%) showed improvement of the LVEF post PCI in their follow up echocardiogram. Larger myocardial injury dilated LV dimension at the acute phase showed a strong impact on further improving LV systolic function. Baseline GLS showed a higher statistical difference between the Non-improving LVEF and improving LVEF groups. Moreover, the early GLS and further LV systolic function improvement were strongly correlated (P < 0.001) with higher sensitivity and specificity. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis demonstrated that GLS values greater than 9% are a predictor of significant LVEF improvement in the follow-up stage. CONCLUSION: Sizable proportion of patients with impaired systolic function following successful PCI show further LV systolic recovery. We demonstrated that the baseline GLS values of more than 9% are an accurate predictor of significant LVEF improvement.