Diastolic dysfunction, frailty and prognosis in elderly patients with acute coronary syndromes

Background To investigate the relationship between 1-year outcome and diastolic dysfunction (DD) and frailty and/or physical performance (PP) in older adults admitted to hospital for acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods and results Older (age ≥ 70 years) hospitalized for ACS and receiving coronary artery angiography ± percutaneous coronary intervention were included. Before discharge a complete transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) was performed with the assessment of DD, following the 2016 American Society of Echocardiography/European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging algorithm. Seven different scales of frailty and PP were assessed. The relationship between DD and tests of frailty and PP was investigated, as well as the association with the 1-year occurrence of all-cause death or re-hospitalization. Overall, 329 patients were included in the analysis. Patients were stratified in two groups: DD grade 0–1 versus 2–3. Those with undetermined degree of DD have been excluded by the analysis (n = 106). Mean age of the groups was 77 ± 5 vs 79 ± 6 years, respectively. Scales of frailty and/or PP were significantly poor in patients with DD grade 2–3 compared to the others. After multivariate Cox regression (considering age, female sex, haemoglobin, albumin, clinical presentation, LVEF and SPPB) DD (degree 2–3 vs. 0–1) emerged as an independent predictor of the composite endpoint (HR 1.69, 95%CI 1.04–2.75, p = 0.033). This was mainly driven by 1-year re-hospitalization (HR 2.01, 95%CI 1.22–3.27, p < 0.001). Conclusions In older ACS patients the assessment of DD is related to parameters of frailty and PP and it is an independent predictor of 1-year outcome.