BACKGROUNDChronic heart failure is a significant cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This study tested the hypothesis that restrictive filling pattern may provide useful prognostic data for identifying patients with chronic heart failure at high risk of all-cause cardiac death.

METHODSNinety patients with chronic heart failure [70 men and 20 women, mean age (58.1 +/- 11.6) years] were investigated and followed for (18.8 +/- 7.9) months. During this period, 14 patients died of progressive pump failure, 12 patients underwent heart transplantation, 5 patients died suddenly, and 2 patients died of acute myocardial infarction. A new criterion, the restrictive filling index (RFI), was designed to subgroup patients into a restrictive and a nonrestrictive group.

RESULTSPatients with restrictive filling pattern had a more severe left ventricular dysfunction and a higher cardiac mortality. Analysis by the Kaplan-Meier method revealed that patients in the RFI > or = 1 and RFI < 1 groups had a cardiac events-free survival rate of 52% versus 94% at 1 year, and 27.5% versus 92% at 2 years, respectively. The multivariate Cox proportional hazard model selected RFI as the most powerful prognostic factor (chi(2) = 8.8017, P = 0.0030) for all-cause cardiac death.

CONCLUSIONThese results indicate that RFI is a simple, noninvasive, and specific clinical predictor for adult chronic heart failure patients who are at a high risk for all-cause cardiac death.