Prognostic Impact of Peak Aortic Jet Velocity on Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction.

BACKGROUND

Aortic valve stenosis (AS) leads to increased cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, and recent studies reported that even mild-to-moderate AS was associated with poor prognosis in the general population. This study investigated the prognostic impact of mild or moderate AS, defined as 2.0 m/s ≤ peak aortic jet velocity (Vmax) ≤3.9 m/s using echocardiography in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients.

METHODS AND

RESULTS

This study enrolled 3,049 AMI patients using data from the Mie ACS registry. Patients were divided into 2 groups according to Vmax: Group 1: Vmax <2.0 m/s and/or visually intact aortic valve in which all 3 leaflets are fully and evenly open; Group 2: 2.0 m/s ≤ Vmax ≤ 3.9 m/s. There were 2,976 patients in Group 1and 73 patients in Group 2. The Group 2 patients were older, had a higher percentage of males and had lower body mass index and Killip ≥2 than the Group 1 patients. Angiographic data, door-to-balloon time, and mechanical support were not different between the 2 groups. The Group 2 patients demonstrated a significantly higher all-cause mortality rate (P<0.01) and composite of cardiovascular death and heart failure hospitalization (P<0.01), and Kaplan-Meier analysis showed the same tendency in propensity score-matched patients.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study revealed that mild or moderate AS based on Vmax is associated with poor prognosis following AMI.