Cardiac Index by Transthoracic Echocardiography (CITE) study

Aims: Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is the most frequently used parameter in the assessment of heart failure (HF). Cardiac index (CI) is considered a potential alternative to LVEF despite limited evidence. We aimed to assess and compare the predictive accuracy of LVEF and echocardiographically-assessed CI in HF patients. Methods and results: A single-centre, retrospective cohort study was conducted in patients hospitalized for acute HF from 2010–2016. Cox proportional hazard models including either LVEF or CI were created to predict all cause death, cardiovascular (CV) death, or first HF-readmission. Of 334 patients included in the analysis, 58.7% exhibited HF with reduced LVEF (HFrEF). Left ventricular ejection fraction did not show correlation with any endpoint, while CI was predictive of HF-readmission in the entire cohort. Both the LVEF-based and CI-based models demonstrated moderate discriminative accuracy when predicting all-cause death, CV death, or HF-readmission. Left ventricular ejection fraction proved to be an independent predictor of CV mortality in HFrEF-patients, while CI was predictive of HF-readmission in the non-HFrEF group. Conclusions: Left ventricular ejection fraction seemed to be associated more closely with disease severity in HFrEF, and CI in the non-HFrEF group, in this real-life cohort of elderly HF patients. The LVEF-based and CI-based predictive models have clinically similar predictive accuracy for mortality and HF-readmission, thus CI may be a potential alternative to LVEF in the assessment of left ventricular function. Cardiac index may be an important new tool in the assessment of HF patients with midrange or preserved LVEF.