Clinical Profile and Prognosis of Patients with Right Ventricular Dilated Cardiomyopathy: Results of a Prospective Study

Abstract

The aim of our study was to investigate the clinical prevalence of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) with predominantly failure of the right-side heart (right ventricular DCM, RV-DCM), and features of the clinical course and prognosis of the disease compared to DCM with biventricular heart failure (BV-HF). The study design suggests a prospective observation of 300 patients with idiopathic DCM between 2000 and 2012. Herewith, we followed the criteria of the WHO/ISFC Task Force (1995) on the Definationa and Classification of Cardiomyopathies. All patients underwent a comprehensive examination. Two groups were formed for further comparative analysis. Group 1 included 22 patients (mean age 42.9±14.3 years, male/female 5/17) with RV-DCM. Group 2 included 38 patients (mean age 43.6±13.8, male/female 29/9) with DCM and BV-HF. The groups were matched for age, sex, NYHA class II-III, and disease duration. According to our aim, we studied 5-year survival prognosis and analyzed the incidence and causes of deaths, as well as the occurrence of nonfatal complications of the disease. Medical therapy for DCM patients was performed according to the CHF therapy guidelines (ACC/AHA 2001, 2005). The results of our investigations during many years of research have shown that the clinical incidence of RV-DCM was 7.3% among all forms of DCM. The study of life prognosis in patients with 2 forms of DCM showed that 5-year mortality of patients was about 50%. Herewith, we detected the differences in causes of death depending on the type of heart damage, primarily development of fatal pulmonary embolism.

Keywords

• right ventricular dilated cardiomyopathy'
• biventricular heart failure;
• prognosis;
• pulmonary embolism;