Background:
Left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction (DD) and vascular functions including peripheral endothelial function play an important role in the pathogenesis of heart failure (HF) with preserved LV ejection fraction (EF) (HFPEF). Hypertension is the most important risk factor in HFPEF and the increased workload caused by hypertension results in LV pathological hypertrophy and LVDD. However, the importance of endothelial function in hypertensive patients with LVDD or HFPEF remains yet undetermined. We investigated the association between peripheral endothelial function, LVDD, and HFPEF in hypertensive patients.
Methods and Results:
We evaluated cardiac function by echocardiography measuring the ratio of early transmitral flow velocity to tissue Doppler early diastolic mitral annular velocity (E/e’) and LVEF. We also noninvasively assessed peripheral endothelial function by reactive hyperemia-peripheral arterial tonometry (RH-PAT) as the RH-PAT index(RHI) in 405 hypertensive patients with preserved LVEF (LVEF>50%), comprising 180 HFPEF and 225 non-HF patients (LVDD; E/e’>15, non-HF with LVDD; n=98, non-HF without LVDD; n=127). RHI negatively correlated with E/e’ (r=-0.24, P<0.001) and B-type natriuretic peptide (r=-0.19, P<0.001). RHI was significantly lower in hypertensive patients with HFPEF than in non-HF hypertensive patients (0.49±0.17 vs. 0.62±0.20, P<0.001). Furthermore, RHI was significantly lower in non-HF hypertensive patients with LVDD than those without LVDD (0.58±0.19 vs. 0.65±0.21, P=0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that lower RHI independently correlated with the presence of HFPEF in hypertensive patients with preserved LVEF (odds ratio: 0.65, 95% confidence interval: 0.55-0.77, P<0.001) and with the presence of LVDD in non-HF hypertensive patients (odds ratio: 0.65, 95% confidence interval: 0.71-0.95, P=0.01).
Conclusions:
RHI was independently associated with the presence of HFPEF and LVDD in hypertensive patients with preserved LVEF. Endothelial dysfunction in microcirculation could play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of LVDD and HFPEF in hypertensive patients.
Olmesartan reverses not only vascular endothelial dysfunction but cardiac diastolic dysfunction in hypertensive patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction — ORION study
