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. 2024 Oct 23:18:100550.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijcchd.2024.100550. eCollection 2024 Dec.

Low birth weight associations with cardiac structure and function in adults after arterial switch for transposition of the great arteries

Art Schuermans  1   2   3 , Béatrice Santens  1   4 , Jef Van den Eynde  1   4 , Xander Jacquemyn  1   5 , Roel L F Van der Palen  6 , Michael C Honigberg  2   3   7 , Alexander Van De Bruaene  1   4 , Piet Claus  1 , Jan Bogaert  8   9 , Werner Budts  1   4
Affiliations

Low birth weight associations with cardiac structure and function in adults after arterial switch for transposition of the great arteries

Art Schuermans et al. Int J Cardiol Congenit Heart Dis. .

Abstract

Background and aims: The objective of this study was to assess the associations of birth weight with cardiac structure and function in adults with dextro-transposition of the great arteries (D-TGA) who underwent the arterial switch operation (ASO).

Methods and results: Thirty-nine ASO patients (age 24.4 ± 3.3 years) were included during routine clinical follow-up from July 2019 to December 2021. All patients underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at rest and during exercise. Early-life characteristics, including birth weight, were extracted from electronic medical health records. Linear regression analysis showed that lower birth weight was associated with smaller left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) end-diastolic volume index (LV: -14.5 mL/m2 [95 % confidence interval, CI: -26.5 to -2.5] per 1-kg decrease in birth weight, p = 0.04; RV: -11.2 mL/m2 [-20.7 to -1.7] per 1-kg decrease in birth weight, p = 0.03). Lower birth weight was associated with greater LV and RV ejection fraction at rest (LV: +8.5 % [+4.4 to +12.5] per 1-kg decrease in birth weight, p < 0.001); RV: +8.1 % [+2.8 to +13.4] per 1-kg decrease in birth weight, p = 0.005). Furthermore, lower birth weight was associated with an attenuated increase in LV stroke volume index from rest to peak exercise (-5.2 mL/m2 [-9.3 to -1.2] per 1-kg decrease in birth weight, p = 0.02).

Conclusions: Birth weight may be a novel risk factor for adverse cardiac remodeling in adult ASO patients. Further research is needed to delineate the mechanisms underlying the associations between birth weight and cardiac remodeling ASO patients as well as the broader adult CHD population.

Keywords: Arterial switch operation; Cardiac remodeling; Congenital heart disease; Exercise; Magnetic resonance imaging; Prematurity; Transposition of the great arteries.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Art Schuermans reports financial support was provided by Belgian American Educational Foundation Inc. Xander Jacquemyn reports financial support was provided by Belgian American Educational Foundation Inc. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper, other than one of the authors (WB) being an IJCCHD Editorial Board Member, but had no involvement with the handling of this paper.

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Scatter plots demonstrating correlations between birth weight and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging parameters at rest. The dots represent the differences in LVSVi from rest to exercise in the individual patients. The line represents the linear regression slope with 95%CI. -EF, ejection fraction.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scatter plots demonstrating the correlations between birth weight and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging parameters at peak exercise. The dots represent the differences in LVSVi from rest to exercise in the individual patients. The line represents the linear regression slope with 95%CI. -EF, ejection fraction.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Scatter plot demonstrating the correlation between birth weight and change in LV stroke volume index from rest to exercise. The dots represent the differences in LVSVi from rest to exercise in the individual patients. The line represents the linear regression slope with 95%CI.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Increase in LV stroke volume index from rest to exercise across different birth weight categories. The circles represent the individual LVSVi values for ASO patients at rest and during exercise. The centrally connected squares represent the mean values for each birth weight group at rest and exercise, respectively.
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