Long-Term Trajectories of Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction in Patients With Chronic Inflammatory Diseases and Heart Failure: An Analysis of Electronic Health Records

Background: Immune regulation and inflammation play a role in the pathogenesis and progression of acute and chronic heart failure (HF). Although the clinical course of acute, severe inflammatory cardiomyopathy is well described, the effects of chronic systemic inflammation on cardiovascular function over time are less clear. To investigate this question, we compared trajectories over time in left ventricular ejection fraction for patients with HF with different chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs): HIV, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and/or psoriasis.

Methods: Using a database of patients receiving care in a large metropolitan health care system since January 1, 2000, we analyzed serial, clinically indicated echocardiograms from patients with HF with CIDs and frequency-matched patients with HF without CIDs. We included patients with ≥3 serial echocardiograms (N=974; median 6.1 years between first and most recent echo). We assessed left ventricular ejection fraction trajectories over time using latent trajectory models, then investigated differences in left ventricular ejection fraction trajectories for specific CID subtypes compared with controls.

Results: Overall, the majority of patients studied (N=687; 70.5%) had left ventricular ejection fraction trajectories consistent with HF with preserved or midrange EF, whereas 255 (26.2%) had HF with reduced EF and 32 (3.3%) had HF with recovered EF. Compared with non-CID controls with HF, patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and systemic lupus erythematosus were significantly more likely than controls to have HF with preserved or midrange EF whereas patients with HIV were significantly more likely to have HF with reduced EF.

Conclusions: Among patients with HF with CIDs, distinct left ventricular ejection fraction trajectory patterns associate with different specific individual CIDs. This highlights the heterogeneity of HF subtypes and changes over time across different CIDs.