Background/aim: It is well known that patients with coronary artery disease and viable tissue as a guarantee of contractile recovery (CR), despite of decreasing ejection fraction (EF) and systolic dysfunction, could have benefit from surgical revascularization. Therefore, relationship between diastolic filling type and early postoperative recovery and complications need to be established. The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between different left ventricular (LV) diastolic filling types and CR in patients after surgical revascularization with differently preserved systolic function.
Methods: We investigated 60 patients. All of them had CR estimated by stress echocardiography regardless the extent of recovery of the heart systolic function. Echocardiographic evidence of diastolic dysfunction was estimated by Doppler examination of transmitral diastolic flow. According to the derived different diastolic filling types the patients were divided into three groups: I--patients with disorder of LV relaxation, II--with pseudovascularisation, and III--with restrictive filling type, and according to the value of systolic function into two subgroups: (1) relatively recovered systolic function--EF > 40% and (2) pronounced LV dysfunction--EF < 40%. Echocardiographic evaluation was performed before and two week after surgical revascularization. In the preoperative period the medication therapy was optimized. We estimated CR by echocardiografic pare meters but also by detection of cardiovascular events.
Results: After CABG the mean value of WMISI LV tended to decrease in any groups: in the group I (n = 12) from 1.64 +/- 0.22 to 1.34 +/- 0.22; in the group II (n = 22) from 1.85 +/- 0.16 to 1.53 +/- 0.42, and in the group III (n=26) from 1.92 +/- 0.29 to 1.81 +/- 0.52. The lowest improvement of systolic function according to EF value expressed by the number of patients was found in the group of patients with restrictive LV filling type (12; 53.8%) as contrasting to the group with pseudonormalisation (15; 78.9%). In the group of patients with restrictive diastolic filling type also was recorded the highest number of lethal outcomes (6; 23.1%), as well as cardiovascular complications (10; 38.5%).
Conclusions: Restrictive LV diastolic filling type was the marker of poor prognosis in the patients with clinical heart failure undergoing surgical revascularization. The patients with heart failure and preserved systolic function were associated with similar prognosis.