Arterial Stiffness is a predictor of recovery of left ventricular systolic function in patients with acute myocardial infarction treated by primary percutaneous coronary intervention

Introduction: Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) are acknowledged as inde- pendent risk factors in different high-risk populations. Methods: We investigated the effects of arterial stiffness on LV function at 3 and 6 months after acute myocardial infarction. Changes in LVEF were evaluated in 136 consecutive patients who were diagnosed with ST-segment elevation coronary syndrome and treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention. Doppler guided by 2D ultrasound was used to measure carotidfemoral PWV. Results: According to tertiles of arterial stiffness, a significant correlation between higher PWV and worse recovery in LVEF was found (3 months EF change: 9.9 ± 5.0 % vs 5.9 ± 3.4 vs 3.8 ± 1.6; p \ 0.001 and 6 months EF change: 18.5±7.0 % vs 11.5±5.2 vs 7.3±3.0; p=0.002) ( Fig 1). In the multivariate analysis PWV showed the ability to predict the outcome in terms of EF recovery at 3 and 6 months also after any correction for age and other variables (b = -0.566, p \ 0.001).Conclusions: This study showed that by measuring PWV values after acute MI, important information could be obtained about LV function recovery during the follow-up.