Right ventricular-pulmonary artery uncoupling in patients with atrial fibrillation on peritoneal dialysis

Tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE)/pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) as a noninvasively measured index of right ventricular-pulmonary artery uncoupling is associated with poor outcomes in heart failure patients. However, the relationship by which the TAPSE/PASP is linked to atrial fibrillation (AF) in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients is not clear. We aimed to investigate the relationship between the TAPSE/PASP and AF in PD patients.

This study was divided into two parts. First, we included 329 PD patients. All the subjects provided detailed a medical history, laboratory analysis and transthoracic echocardiography on admission. We evaluated the differences in the TASPE/PASP ratios between the AF and non-AF groups. Second, a total of 121 patients were followed up to compare mortality between the AF and non-AF groups.

Age, BNP, RDW, LA, and septal E/e' were significantly higher, and TAPSE/PASP was significantly lower in patients with AF than in those without AF (p < 0.05). Moreover, the TAPSE/PASP was more pronounced in persistent AF patients. PD patients with AF had a greater risk of mortality (7.2%) than did those without AF (3.8%) after an average follow-up of 12 months. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with TAPSE/PASP ratios ≤ 0.715 had a greater risk of mortality than did those with TAPSE/PASP ratios > 0.715.

The results suggested that the TAPSE/PASP was lower in AF patients than in non-AF patients. The TAPSE/PASP may be a useful factor for predicting mortality in AF patients with PD, but large-scale prospective studies are needed for verification.