Biering-Sørensen T, et al. - This study appraised left ventricular ejection time (LVET) as a predictor of cardiovascular morbidity in middle-aged African-Americans who underwent echocardiography. Left ventricular ejection time was identified as an independent predictor of incident heart failure (HF) and when combined with known risk prediction models, offered incremental prognostic information on the risk of future HF and death.

Methods

• Researchers studied middle-aged African-Americans from one of four cohorts of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (Jackson cohort, n=1980) who underwent echocardiography between 1993 and 1995.
• Left ventricular ejection time was measured by pulsed-wave Doppler of the left ventricular outflow tract and related to outcomes.

Results

• Findings demonstrated that a shorter LVET was associated with younger age, male sex, higher diastolic blood pressure, higher proportion of diabetes, higher heart rate, higher blood glucose levels and worse fractional shortening.
• Researchers observed that during a median follow-up of 17.6 years, 384 (19%) had incident heart failure (HF), 158 (8%) had a myocardial infarction, and 587 (30%) died.
• In univariable analysis, it was evident that a lower LVET was significantly associated with increased risk of all events (P<0.05 for all).
• However, data reported that after multivariable adjustment for age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, body mass index, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fractional shortening and left atrial diameter, LVET remained an independent predictor only of incident HF [hazard ratio 1.07 (1.02–1.14), P=0.010 per 10 ms decrease].
• Researchers also found that LVET provided incremental prognostic information to the known risk factors included in the Framingham risk score, in regard to predicting all outcomes except for myocardial infarction.