Echocardiographic phenotypes in sepsis: identifying subgroups using latent profile analysis

Sepsis remains a leading cause of mortality, and optimizing treatment is challenging due to patient heterogeneity. Identification of cardiac phenotypes may inform precision medicine approaches and guide resuscitation. We performed a clustering analysis of patients with sepsis using echocardiographic data without using any a priori definitions of cardiac dysfunction or outcomes to establish the subgroups.

This was a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted to the hospital with sepsis at a single academic center. Patients were identified using sepsis-related ICD codes, and those who had echocardiogram performed within 14 days of admission underwent chart review to ensure sepsis-3 criteria were met. Those with preexisting heart disease were excluded. Clustering by echocardiographic variables was performed using latent profile analysis. Clinical features such as patient characteristics, laboratory studies, sepsis source, and outcomes were compared across the clusters.

There were 2,071 patients included in the analysis. Our cluster analysis yielded five phenotypes: cluster 1, elevated mean E/e' 24.5 (SD 9.6); cluster 2, reduced ejection fraction, mean 33.1% (SD 10.6), and cardiac index 2.6 L/min/m² (SD 0.9); cluster 3, right ventricular dilation with right ventricular basal diameter 4.5 cm (SD 0.9) and elevated tricuspid regurgitation gradient 60.0 mmHg (SD 13.5); cluster 4, hyperdynamic with mean left ventricular ejection fraction 75% (SD10.9) and mean cardiac index 6.6 L/min/m² (SD 2.6); and lastly cluster 5, normal echocardiographic parameters. Group 3 had the highest mortality compared to the normal group (36.9% vs. 19.6%, p = 0.002), with an odds ratio of 2.3 (95%CI 1.4-3.9).

Using an unsupervised clustering analysis, we identified five phenotypes of cardiac function in sepsis based on commonly recorded echocardiographic data: diastolic dysfunction, left ventricular systolic dysfunction with low cardiac index, right ventricular dilation with elevated tricuspid regurgitation gradient, hyperdynamic cardiac function, and normal. The right ventricular dilation group had the highest mortality. Future research should explore mechanisms and potential treatment implications for these groups.