Pulmonary Artery Strain Predicts Prognosis in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Current cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) focuses on measures of ventricular function and coupling.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate pulmonary artery (PA) global longitudinal strain (GLS) as a prognostic marker in patients with PAH.

The authors included 169 patients with PAH from the ASPIRE (Assessing the Spectrum of Pulmonary hypertension Identified at a REferral centre) and INITIATE (Integrated computatioNal modelIng of righT heart mechanIcs and blood flow dynAmics in congeniTal hEart disease) registries, and 82 normal controls with similar age and gender distributions. PA GLS was derived from CMR feature tracking. Right ventricular measurements including volumes, ejection fraction, and right ventricular GLS were also derived from CMR. Patients were followed up a median of 34 months with all-cause mortality as the primary endpoint. Other known risk scores were collected, including the REVEAL (Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-term Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Disease Management) 2.0 and COMPERA (Comparative, Prospective Registry of Newly Initiated Therapies for Pulmonary Hypertension) 2.0 scores.

Of 169 patients (mean age: 57 ± 15 years; 80% female), 45 (26.6%) died (median follow-up: 34 months). Mean PA GLS was 23% ± 6% in normal controls and 10% ± 5% in patients with PAH (P < 0.0001). Patients with PA GLS <9% had a higher risk of mortality than those with PA GLS ≥9% (P < 0.001), and this was an independent predictor of mortality in PAH on multivariable analysis after adjustment for known risk factors (HR: 2.93; P = 0.010). Finally, in patients with PAH, PA GLS provided incremental prognostic value over the REVEAL 2.0 (global chi-square; P = 0.001; C statistic comparison; P = 0.030) and COMPERA 2.0 (global chi-square; P = 0.001; C statistic comparison; P = 0.048).

PA GLS confers incremental prognostic utility over the established risk scores for identifying patients with PAH at higher risk of death, who may be targeted for closer monitoring and/or intensified therapy.