Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jan;22(1):82-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.echo.2008.11.015.

Left atrial volume provides independent prognostic value in patients with Chagas cardiomyopathy

Maria Carmo P Nunes  1 , Marcia M Barbosa, Antônio Luiz P Ribeiro, Enrico A Colosimo, Manoel O C Rocha
Affiliations

Left atrial volume provides independent prognostic value in patients with Chagas cardiomyopathy

Maria Carmo P Nunes et al. J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2009 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Heart failure is a severe clinical manifestation of Chagas disease. Left atrial volume (LAV), a marker of chronically elevated left ventricular (LV) filling pressure, is a predictor of prognosis in patients with heart failure and may be important in the assessment of risk in patients with Chagas disease. The aim of this study was to identify echocardiographic parameters of diastolic function predictors of survival in patients with Chagas cardiomyopathy.

Methods: A total of 192 patients with Chagas cardiomyopathy (mean age, 48.5 +/- 12.1 years; 37% women) were prospectively enrolled. The end points were death and cardiac transplantation.

Results: Over a mean follow-up period of 33.8 months, LAV normalized for body surface area emerged as an independent predictor of survival (hazard ratio, 1.037 per 1 mL/m(2) change; 95% confidence interval, 1.018-1.056; P < .001), adding incremental prognostic value to clinical factors, LV ejection fraction, and Doppler-derived parameters of diastolic function. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified the best cutoff values for the prediction of end points. LAV > 51 mL/m(2) was associated with significant excess mortality (log-rank, P < .001).

Conclusions: LAV provides powerful prognostic information incrementally and independently to clinical data and conventional echocardiographic parameters in the prediction of survival. New York Heart Association functional class, LV ejection fraction, right ventricular function, the E/E' ratio, and LAV index can be used to build a risk prediction model, which can be used clinically.

PubMed Disclaimer