Impact of 2016 American Society of Echocardiography/European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Recommendations for the Evaluation of Left Ventricular Diastolic Function on Predicting Outcomes in Patients with Diabetes and Hypertension without a History of Cardiovascular Disease

Background: The prognostic value of diastolic dysfunction estimates in clinical settings is not well established. We aimed to evaluate the impact of the 2016 American Society of Echocardiography and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging recommendations on estimates of diastolic dysfunction and predicting cardiovascular outcomes in patients with diabetes and hypertension. Methods: In total, 111 patients with diabetes and hypertension without a known history of cardiovascular diseases were enrolled. All patients had preserved left ventricular ejection fraction on echocardiography at screening. Echocardiography was performed at baseline. The 2009 and 2016 algorithms were applied in diastolic function assessment. All patients were followed up for 1 year to assess clinical outcomes. Results: There were 65 (58.6%) female patients. The mean age was 59.86 ± 7.45 years, and the mean duration of diabetes was 10.5 ± 5.41 years. Fifty-five (50.5%) patients had left ventricular hypertrophy on echocardiography. The prevalence of diastolic dysfunction was lower and that of indeterminate diastolic function was higher with 2016 recommendations. Concordance between 2016 and 2009 recommendations was poor with a reclassification rate of 41.4%. No patients diagnosed with indeterminate and normal diastolic function using the 2016 algorithm and diastolic dysfunction using the 2009 algorithm developed major adverse cardiac events at 1 year. Two of 11 patients diagnosed with diastolic dysfunction using both recommendations and two of five patients diagnosed with diastolic dysfunction and indeterminate diastolic function using 2016 and 2009 recommendations, respectively, developed major adverse cardiac events at 1 year. The 2016 algorithm showed better accuracy in predicting major adverse cardiac events at 1 year. Conclusion: The updated 2016 criteria detect more advanced diastolic dysfunction cases and predict 1-year cardiovascular outcomes. Further studies are warranted to investigate the prognostic impact of these criteria. Trial registration number: NMRR-16-436-29619.