Risk factors for heart failure are associated with alterations of the LV end-diastolic pressure–volume relationship in non-heart failure individuals: data from a large-scale, population-based cohort

Left-ventricular (LV) remodelling impacts on the LV end-diastolic pressure–volume relationship (EDPVR), which is different in heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). In a large-scale, population-based cohort (Gutenberg Health Study), we aimed to investigate alterations of the EDPVR in HF patients and their association to risk factors and all-cause mortality in non-HF individuals.

Based on clinical and echocardiographic data, participants were divided into ‘No HF’ (n = 14487), HFrEF (n = 215), and HFpEF (n = 79). We estimated the position of the EDPVR and its stiffness-coefficient β from echocardiographic data using a single-beat method. The EDPVR was shifted rightward in HFrEF and leftward in HFpEF compared with ‘No HF’, while the stiffness-coefficient β was increased in both HFrEF and HFpEF. In ‘No HF’, a higher stiffness-coefficient β was associated with age, female gender, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity, while age and female gender were associated with a leftward shift of the EDPVR, whereas dyslipidaemia, obesity, smoking, and impaired renal function were associated with a rightward shift of the EDPVR. Both changes of the EDPVR were associated with increased all-cause mortality.

In a large-scale, population-based cohort, we show distinct alterations of the EDPVR in HFrEF and HFpEF. Already in non-HF individuals, the presence of risk factors for HF is linked alterations of the EDPVR, which are associated with increased mortality.