BACKGROUND

Chronic aortic regurgitation (AR) is a common valvular disease characterized by an overload of left ventricular volume and pressure. Accurate assessment of the heart from all angles is crucial for effective clinical management and prognostic evaluation of AR patients. As an advanced imaging technique, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has become the gold standard for assessing cardiac volume and function. Accordingly, this study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of CMR in chronic AR.

METHODS

EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched for clinical studies published between inception and July 19, 2022. Only studies that used CMR to assess patients with chronic isolated AR and provided prognostic data were included.

RESULTS

For our analysis, 11 studies, which involved 1702 subjects and follow-up periods of 0.6-9.7 years, were eligible. We identified 13 CMR-related parameters associated with AR prognosis. With aortic valve surgery as the outcome, we estimated the pooled hazard ratios (HRs) for four of these parameters: aortic regurgitation fraction (ARF), aortic regurgitation volume (ARV), left ventricle end-diastolic volume (LVEDV), and LV end-systolic volume (LVESV). The pooled HR for ARF was found to be 4.31 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.12-16.59, = 0.034), while that for ARV was 3.88 (95% CI: 0.71-21.04, = 0.116). Additionally, the combined HRs of LVEDV and LVESV were estimated to be 2.20 (95% CI: 1.04-4.67, = 0.039) and 3.14 (95% CI: 1.22-8.07, = 0.018), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The assessment of ARF, LVEDV, and LVESV via CMR has significant prognostic value in predicting the prognosis of AR patients with aortic valve surgery as an endpoint. It is recommended to consider using multi-parameter CMR in the clinical management of AR patients for timely interventions and effective prognostic evaluation.