Left atrial stiffness is superior to volume and strain parameters in predicting elevated NT-proBNP levels in systemic sclerosis patients

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is common in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and implies a worse prognosis therefore non-invasive assessment of left ventricular (LV) filling pressure is pivotal. Besides E/eʹ the use of maximal left atrial volume (LA Vmax index) is recommended. LA reservoir strain was also reported to be useful. The utility of LA stiffness, however, was never investigated in SSc. Thus we aimed to compare the diagnostic power of LA Vmax index, reservoir strain and stiffness in predicting elevated LV filling pressure in SSc patients. 72 SSc patients (age: 57 ± 11 years) were investigated. LA stiffness was calculated as ratio of E/eʹ to LA reservoir strain. Elevated LV filling pressure was defined as NT-proBNP > 220 pg/ml. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to estimate the diagnostic performance of the investigated parameters. Average NT-proBNP level was 181 ± 154 pg/ml. NT-proBNP > 220 pg/ml was found in 21 SSc patients. LA stiffness showed the highest diagnostic performance in predicting NT-pro-BNP > 220 pg/ml, with a cut off value of 0.314 (Area under the curve: 0.719, specificity: 89.4%, sensitivity: 42.1%). AUC values for LA reservoir strain and Vmax index were 0.595 and 0.521, respectively. LA stiffness was superior to Vmax index and reservoir strain in predicting elevated NT-proBNP levels in SSc patients. Although invasive validation studies on larger samples are required, our data suggest, that the use of LA stiffness may significantly contribute to diagnostic precision in populations with a high suspicion of HFpEF.