Impact of bendopnea on chronic heart failure with normal ventricular ejection

AIM To explore the clinical value of bendopnea in chronic heart failure with normal ejection fraction. METHODS According to the clinical outcomes at 2-year follow-up, chronic heart failure patients were divided into a bendopnea group and a non-bendopnea group. Research metrics included death, cardiac death, re-admission to hospital for heart failure, heart function aggravating to IV degree, EF less than 50%, 6-minute walking distance less than 300 meters and/or blood NT-ProBNP more than 1 200 ng/ml. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression models were used to examine the association of bendopnea with clinical outcomes. RESULTS Out of 162 total patients, 158 (97.5%) completed the 2-year follow-up and bendopnea was administered in 80 patients (50.6%). After mutltivariate adjusting, there was no difference in death/cardiac death rates between the bendopnea group and non-bendopnea group. The rate of hospital re-admission for heart failure in the bendopnea group was higher than that in the non-bendopnea group (24% vs. 18%, P<0.01). The rate of EF less than 50% in the bendopnea group was higher than that in the non-bendopnea group (14% vs. 7%, P<0.05). The rate of heart functions aggravating to IV degree in the bendopnea group was higher than that in the non-bendopnea group (16% vs. 9%, P<0.05). The rate of blood NT-ProBNP more than 1 200 ng/ml in the bendopnea group was higher than that in the non-bendopnea group (13% vs. 10%, P<0.05). Finally, the rate of 6-minute walking distance less than 300 meters in the bendopnea group was higher than that in the non-bendopnea group (19% vs. 14%, P<0.05). CONCLUSION Bendopnea elevates the risk of heart function aggravation in chronic heart failure with normal ventricular ejection.