Liver Stiffness Reflecting Right-Sided Filling Pressure Can Predict Adverse Outcomes in Patients With Heart Failure

This study sought to investigate whether elevated liver stiffness (LS) values at discharge reflect residual liver congestion and are associated with worse outcomes in patients with heart failure (HF).

Transient elastography is a newly developed, noninvasive method for assessing LS, which can be highly reflective of right-sided filling pressure associated with passive liver congestion in patients with HF.

LS values were determined for 171 hospitalized patients with HF before discharge using a Fibroscan device.

The median LS value was 5.6 kPa (interquartile range: 4.4 to 8.1 kPa; range 2.4 to 39.7 kPa) and that of right-sided filling pressure, which was estimated based on LS, was 5.7 mm Hg (interquartile range: 4.1 to 8.2 mm Hg; range 0.1 to 18.9 mm Hg). The patients in the highest LS tertile (>6.9 kPa, corresponding to an estimated right-sided filling pressure of >7.1 mm Hg) had advanced New York Heart Association functional class, high prevalence of jugular venous distention and moderate/severe tricuspid regurgitation, large inferior vena cava (IVC) diameter, low hemoglobin and hematocrit levels, high serum direct bilirubin level, and a similar left ventricular ejection fraction compared with the lower tertiles. During follow-up periods (median: 203 days), 8 (5%) deaths and 33 (19%) hospitalizations for HF were observed. The patients in the highest LS group had a significantly higher mortality rate and HF rehospitalization (hazard ratio: 3.57; 95% confidence interval: 1.93 to 6.83; p < 0.001) compared with the other tertiles. Although LS correlated with IVC diameter and serum direct bilirubin and brain natriuretic peptide levels, LS values were predictive of worse outcomes, even after adjustment for these indices.

These data suggest that LS is a useful index for assessing systemic volume status and predicting the severity of HF, and that the presence of liver congestion at discharge is associated with worse outcomes in patients with HF.