P2627Diffuse coronary artery disease and effect of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators in patients with non-ischaemic systolic heart failure
Authors: Byrne C , Ahlehoff O , Pedersen F , Pehrson S , Nielsen J C , Eiskjaer H , Videbaek L , Svendsen J H , Haarbo J , Thoegersen A M , Koeber L , Thune J J 
Published: October 2019

Background

Implantable defibrillators reduce mortality in patients with ischaemic heart failure. The recent Danish Study to Assess the Efficacy of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators in Patients With Non-Ischaemic Systolic Heart Failure on Mortality (DANISH) found no overall effect on all-cause mortality with ICD implantation. Coronary artery disease (CAD) as the cause of heart failure had to be ruled out prior to inclusion into DANISH, but patients could have diffuse atherosclerosis, one- or two-vessel disease on the qualifying coronary angiogram if the investigator did not find that the degree of CAD could explain the severely reduced left ventricular ejection fraction. It is unknown if concomitant coronary atherosclerosis is related to outcome in patients with non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy and whether the effect of implanting an ICD is different in patients with non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy and coronary atherosclerosis.

Purpose

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between coronary atherosclerosis and all-cause mortality in patients with non-ischaemic systolic heart failure and the effect of ICD implantation in these patients.

Methods

Of the 1116 patients from the DANISH study, 838 patients with available coronary angiography data were included in this subgroup analysis. Patients were considered to have coronary atherosclerosis if the invasive cardiologist described diffuse atherosclerosis or coronary stenosis. We used cox regression to assess the relationship between coronary atherosclerosis and mortality and between ICD implantation and mortality in patients with and without coronary atherosclerosis. Data are presented as hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals.

Results

Of the 838 patients, 266 (32%) had coronary atherosclerosis, 216 (81%) of whom were reported as having atherosclerosis without stenoses. Patients with coronary atherosclerosis were significantly older (median age 67 years vs 61 years), more often male (77% vs 70%) and had a higher prevalence of diabetes (30% vs 17%).

In univariable analysis, coronary atherosclerosis was a significant predictor of all-cause mortality (HR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.04–1.91; P=0.03). However, the association between coronary atherosclerosis and all-cause mortality disappeared when adjusting for age, gender and diabetes (HR 1.02, 0.75–1.41, P=0.88). Adjusted hazard ratios are shown in Figure 1.

There was no association between ICD treatment and all-cause mortality in patients with or without coronary atherosclerosis (HR 0.94; 0.58–1.52; P=0.79 vs HR 0.82; 0.56–1.20; P=0.30), P for interaction=0.67.

Figure 1

Conclusions

In patients with non-ischaemic systolic heart failure, the concomitant presence of coronary atherosclerosis was associated with increased mortality. However, this association was not independent of other risk factors. ICD implantation was not associated with mortality risk in patients either with or without concomitant coronary atherosclerosis.

Acknowledgement/Funding

TrygFonden (Copenhagen, DK), Medtronic (US) and St. Jude Medical (US)