Myocardial contraction fraction by echocardiography and mortality in cardiac intensive care unit patients

Int J Cardiol. 2021 Dec 1:344:230-239. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2021.09.040. Epub 2021 Sep 23.

Abstract

Background: The myocardial contraction fraction (MCF) is proposed as an improved measure of left ventricular (LV) systolic function that overcomes important limitations of the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). We sought to determine whether a low MCF was associated with higher mortality in cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) patients.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed unique Mayo Clinic CICU patients from 2007 to 2018 with MCF calculated as the ratio of the stroke volume to the left ventricular myocardial volume from a transthoracic echocardiogram within 1 day of CICU admission. Multivariable logistic regression analyzed the association between MCF and hospital mortality, after adjustment for LVEF and clinical variables.

Results: We included 4794 patients with a mean age of 68.0 ± 14.8 years (37.1% females). The mean MCF was 0.41 ± 0.16, and was lower in the 6.6% of patients who died in the hospital (0.32 ± 0.14 versus 0.42 ± 0.16, p < 0.001). On multivariable analysis, higher MCF remained associated with lower hospital mortality (adjusted OR 0.78 per 0.1 higher, 95% CI 0.69-0.89, p < 0.001), whereas LVEF was not significantly associated with hospital mortality (unadjusted OR 0.91 per 10% higher, OR 95% CI 0.82-1.02, p = 0.09). Patients with MCF <0.2 had the highest in-hospital mortality, and those with MCF ≥0.5 had the lowest in-hospital mortality, irrespective of admission diagnosis or LVEF.

Conclusions: MCF demonstrated a strong, inverse relationship with hospital mortality in CICU patients, even after adjusting for LVEF and clinical variables. MCF can be used to identify prognostically-relevant myocardial dysfunction at the bedside, even among patients with preserved LVEF.

Keywords: Cardiac function; Cardiac intensive care unit; Left ventricular ejection fraction; Left ventricular function; Mortality; Myocardial contraction fraction; Myocardial systolic function.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Echocardiography
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Intensive Care Units
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Myocardial Contraction
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Stroke Volume
  • Ventricular Dysfunction, Left* / diagnostic imaging
  • Ventricular Function, Left*