Tissue-Based Predictors of Impaired Right Ventricular Strain in Coronary Artery Disease: A Multicenter Stress Perfusion Study

• Published in: Circulation. Cardiovascular imaging Vol. 17; no. 8; p. e016852
• Main Authors: Villar-Calle, Pablo, Kochav, Jonathan D, Vadaketh, Krista, Chiu, Caitlin, Tak, Katherine, Agoglia, Hannah, Liberman, Nicole, Nguyen, Kenny L, Vizcarra-Tellez, Abdier, Wu, Alan, RoyChoudhury, Arindam, Khalique, Omar K, Judd, Robert M, Kim, Raymond J, Shah, Dipan J, Heitner, John F, Farzaneh-Far, Afshin, Shenoy, Chetan, Owyang, Clark G, Mukherjee, Monica, Horn, Evelyn M, Weinsaft, Jonathan W, Kim, Jiwon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.08.2024
• Subjects: Aged; Coronary Artery Disease - complications; Coronary Artery Disease - diagnostic imaging; Coronary Artery Disease - physiopathology; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine - methods; Male; Middle Aged; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging - methods; Predictive Value of Tests; Prognosis; Stroke Volume - physiology; United States - epidemiology; Ventricular Dysfunction, Right - diagnostic imaging; Ventricular Dysfunction, Right - etiology; Ventricular Dysfunction, Right - physiopathology; Ventricular Function, Left - physiology; Ventricular Function, Right - physiology; United States; coronary artery disease; global longitudinal strain; ventricular dysfunction, right; myocardial ischemia; perfusion; myocardial infarction
• ISSN: 1941-9651; 1942-0080; 1942-0080
• DOI: 10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.124.016852

Right ventricular (RV) dysfunction is known to impact prognosis, but its determinants in coronary artery disease are poorly understood. Stress cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has been used to assess ischemia and infarction in relation to the left ventricle (LV); the impact of myocardial tissue properties on RV function is unknown. Vasodilator stress CMR was performed in patients with known coronary artery disease at 7 sites between May 2005 and October 2018. Myocardial infarction was identified on late gadolinium enhancement-CMR, and infarct transmurality was graded on a per-segment basis. Ischemia was assessed on stress CMR based on first-pass perfusion and localized by using segment partitions corresponding to cine and late gadolinium enhancement analyses. RV function was evaluated by CMR-feature tracking for primary analysis with a global longitudinal strain threshold of 20% used to define impaired RV strain (RV ); secondary functional analysis via RV ejection fraction was also performed. A total of 2604 patients were studied, among whom RV was present in 461 patients (18%). The presence and magnitude of RV were strongly associated with LV dysfunction, irrespective of whether measured by LV ejection fraction or wall motion score ( <0.001 for all). Regarding tissue substrate, regions of ischemic and dysfunctional myocardium (ie, hibernating myocardium) and infarct size were each independently associated with RV (both <0.001). During follow-up (median, 4.62 [interquartile range, 2.15-7.67] years), 555 deaths (21%) occurred. Kaplan-Meier analysis for patients stratified by presence and magnitude of RV dysfunction by global longitudinal strain and RV ejection fraction each demonstrated strong prognostic utility for all-cause mortality ( <0.001). RV conferred increased mortality risk (hazard ratio, 1.35 [95% CI, 1.11-1.66]; =0.003) even after controlling for LV function, infarction, and ischemia. RV in patients with known coronary artery disease is associated with potentially reversible LV processes, including LV functional impairment due to ischemic and predominantly viable myocardium, which confers increased mortality risk independent of LV function and tissue substrate.