Integrative review of electrocardiographic characteristics in patients with reduced, mildly reduced, and preserved heart failure

Abstract

Introduction: Electrocardiographic (ECG) changes in heart failure with reduced, mildly reduced, and preserved ejection fractions can be critical in clinical assessment while waiting to perform echocardiograms or when it is unavailable. This integrative review aimed to identify ECG characteristics among hospitalized patients demonstrating three types of heart failure during acute decompensation.

Methods: We searched an electronic database of PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Scopus, Google Scholar, and ClinicalTrials.gov using medical subject headings (MeSH) terms and keywords. Sixteen studies were synthesized and reported.

Results: Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) was more common in men, comorbid with coronary artery diseases and diabetes mellitus, higher BNP/Pro-BNP, wide QRS, and left bundle branch block on ECG. On average, clients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) were older and more likely to have a history of atrial fibrillation, valvular heart diseases, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary, and atrial fibrillation (AF) on ECG. Patients with mildly reduced (HFmrEF) were more similar to HFpEF in older patients, comorbid with hypertension, AF and valvular diseases, and AF on ECG.

Conclusions: ECG characteristics might be related to left ventricular ejection fraction. Demographics, BNP/Pro-BNP, and ECG changes might help differentiate different heart failure types. Therefore, ECG might be a prognostic tool while caring for heart failure patients when highly skilled resources are unavailable. These identified ECG characteristics help generate research hypotheses and warrant validation in future research.

Keywords: Acute heart failure; ECG; HFmrEF; HFpEF; HFrEF.