Heart failure & cardiomyopathies

Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes in Patients With Heart Failure: Are There Thresholds and Inflection Points in Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction and Thresholds Justifying a Clinical Classification?

CirculationPublished Pooled patient-level analysis of randomised controlled trials

Authors' conclusion

In patients with HF, there was a LVEF threshold of around 40% to 50% where the pattern of patient characteristics changed, and event rates began to increase compared with higher LVEF values.

Study context

Population
Patients with heart failure (HF) across the full range of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), from 6 randomised HF trials (reduced and preserved EF)
Participants
33,699 patients6 RCTs
Outcome
Incidence of all-cause death (and specific causes of death) and HF hospitalization in relation to LVEF
Methodological details6 RCTs, patient-level data
  • 6 RCTs
  • Patient-level data

Pooled result

As reported in the abstract

Clinical outcomes by LVEF

LVEF inflection point for all-cause death and CV death

around 50%

LVEF inflection point for pump failure death

around 40%

LVEF inflection point for HF hospitalization

around 35%

Further pooled results

Patient characteristics by LVEF

Above LVEF 50%: age and women still increased, ischemic pathogenesis and NT-proBNP decreased; other characteristics did not change meaningfully
>50%
As LVEF increased: age, women, BMI, SBP, AF and DM increased; ischemic pathogenesis, eGFR and NT-proBNP decreased

Cardiac structure with high-normal LVEF (echocardiographic subset)

No structural differences suggestive of amyloidosis; NT-proBNP consistent

Original publication

Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes in Patients With Heart Failure: Are There Thresholds and Inflection Points in Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction and Thresholds Justifying a Clinical Classification? Circulation. Published 27 June 2023. doi:10.1161/circulationaha.122.063642

Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →

Get them every week

New studies on this topic in My Week and in your Monday e-mail.

We e-mail you a sign-in link and a code. No password, no spam.