Long-term outcomes of non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy patients with left ventricular ejection fraction ≤19% on medical therapy.

BACKGROUND

Patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction in low resource settings may not have access to devices and expensive therapeutic options. We followed up a cohort of patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) with very low left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF≤19%) on low cost medical therapy alone. By selecting patients with such low LVEF, this study was restricted to patients with severe disease. We studied long-term transplant free survival of these patients.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The study enrolled 130 patients (83 men and 47 women) of DCM cohort with LVEF≤19% from April 2003-December 2018 on medical therapy alone. Mean age was 40.35 ± 13.9 years. Mean follow-up was 45.6 ± 39 months while median follow-up was 39 months (range: 0-176 months). Patients on devices (ICD/CRT) for heart failure management were excluded. Fifty-four patients died and three underwent transplant during the study. Median survival was 86 months (S.E. 22.38). 113 patients had follow-up till end of study. In the worst case scenario, if all 17 patients who were lost to final follow-up were assumed to be dead, the median survival was still 57 (S.E.9.28) months. Higher baseline NYHA class, recurrent heart failure hospitalizations, absence of treatment with beta-blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers and aldosterone antagonists were predictors of death on univariate analysis whereas none of these parameters were significant on multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Median survival of our DCM cohort with LVEF≤19% on medical therapy was over 7 years.