Acute cardiac care & resuscitation
Left ventricular-arterial coupling and mortality in the cardiac intensive care unit
An erratum to this article was published (Eur Heart J Acute Cardiovasc Care, 8 Jul 2026 ↗)
Main finding · In-hospital mortalityResult — go to the resultAdjusted odds ratio 1.63 95% CI 1.17–2.28Authors' conclusion
Ventricular-arterial uncoupling was associated with worse outcomes in an unselected CICU cohort. The echocardiographic VAC ratio is a simple non-invasive bedside measure that can be used for risk prediction in the CICU.
Study context
- Population
- Mayo Clinic cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) patients from 2007 and 2018median age 69 (58, 79) years, 37.2% females, acute coronary syndrome in 54.9%, heart failure in 49.0%
- Participants
- 4,685 participants
- Comparison
- Higher vs lower echocardiographic ventricular-arterial coupling (VAC) ratio
- Outcome
- In-hospital mortality
- Follow-up
- During hospitalization
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Adjusted odds ratio
1.63
95% CI 1.17–2.28
P = 0.010
Higher vs lower echocardiographic VAC ratio
adjusted odds ratio 1.63 (95% CI 1.17–2.28); P = 0.010
- Patients died during hospitalization
- 329 (7%)
Secondary outcomes
Severity of illness, echocardiographic findings, use of critical care therapies
- A higher VAC ratio was associated with greater severity of illness, worse echocardiographic findings, and more use of critical care therapies
All-cause 1-year mortality (secondary outcome)
- One-year mortality was higher for patients with a higher VAC ratio, especially VAC >2
Original publication
Left ventricular-arterial coupling and mortality in the cardiac intensive care unit. Eur Heart J Acute Cardiovasc Care. Published 12 March 2025. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it