-
J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. · Nov 2007
Multicenter StudyPrognostic value of T-wave alternans in patients with heart failure due to nonischemic cardiomyopathy: results of the ALPHA Study.
- Jorge A Salerno-Uriarte, Gaetano M De Ferrari, Catherine Klersy, Roberto F E Pedretti, Massimo Tritto, Luciano Sallusti, Luigi Libero, Giacinto Pettinati, Giulio Molon, Antonio Curnis, Eraldo Occhetta, Fabrizio Morandi, Paolo Ferrero, Francesco Accardi, and ALPHA Study Group Investigators.
- Dipartimento di Scienze Cardiovascolari, Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Ospedale di Circolo e Fondazione Macchi, Varese, Italy.
- J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2007 Nov 6; 50 (19): 1896-904.
ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of T-wave alternans (TWA) in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class II/III patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < or =40%.BackgroundThere is a strong need to identify reliable risk stratifiers among heart failure candidates for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) prophylaxis. T-wave alternans may identify low-risk subjects among post-myocardial infarction patients with depressed LVEF, but its predictive role in nonischemic cardiomyopathy is unclear.MethodsFour hundred forty-six patients were enrolled and followed up for 18 to 24 months. The primary end point was the combination of cardiac death + life-threatening arrhythmias; secondary end points were total mortality and the combination of arrhythmic death + life-threatening arrhythmias.ResultsPatients with abnormal TWA (65%) compared with normal TWA (35%) tests were older (60 +/- 13 years vs. 57 +/- 12 years), were more frequently in NYHA functional class III (22% vs. 19%), and had a modestly lower LVEF (29 +/- 7% vs. 31 +/- 7%). Primary end point rates in patients with abnormal and normal TWA tests were 6.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.5% to 9.4%) and 1.6% (95% CI 0.6% to 4.4%), respectively. Unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios were 4.0 (95% CI 1.4% to 11.4%; p = 0.002) and 3.2 (95% CI 1.1% to 9.2%; p = 0.013), respectively. Hazard ratios for total mortality and for arrhythmic death + life-threatening arrhythmias were 4.6 (p = 0.002) and 5.5 (p = 0.004), respectively; 18-month negative predictive values for the 3 end points ranged between 97.3% and 98.6%.ConclusionsAmong NYHA functional class II/III nonischemic cardiomyopathy patients, an abnormal TWA test is associated with a 4-fold higher risk of cardiac death and life-threatening arrhythmias. Patients with normal TWA tests have a very good prognosis and are likely to benefit little from ICD therapy.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*
,_underline_
or**bold**
. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>
and subscript<sub>text</sub>
. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3.
, hyphens-
or asterisks*
. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
- Images can be included with:
![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
- For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)
inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]
to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote.
.