Prognostic Implications of Blunted Feature-Tracking Global Longitudinal Strain During Vasodilator Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Stress Imaging

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine the prognostic value of feature-tracking global longitudinal strain (GLS) measured during vasodilator stress cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging. BACKGROUND Prior studies have suggested that blunted myocardial strain during dobutamine stress echocardiography may be associated with adverse prognosis. Recent developments in CMR feature-tracking techniques now allow assessment of strain in clinical practice using standard cine images without specialized pulse sequences or complex postprocessing. Whether feature-tracking GLS measured during vasodilator stress provides independent and incremental prognostic data is unclear. METHODS Consecutive patients undergoing stress perfusion CMR were prospectively enrolled (n = 535). Featuretracking stress GLS was measured immediately after regadenoson perfusion. Patients were followed for major adverse cardiac events (MACE): death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, heart failure hospitalization, sustained ventricular tachycardia, and late revascularization. Cox proportional hazards regression modeling was used to examine the association between stress GLS and MACE. The incremental prognostic value of stress GLS was assessed in nested models. RESULTS Over a median follow-up of 1.5 years, 82 patients experienced MACE. By Kaplan-Meier analysis, patients with stress GLS >= median (-19%) had significantly reduced event-free survival compared with those with stress GLS < median (log-rank p < 0.001). Stress GLS was significantly associated with risk of MACE after adjustment for clinical and imaging risk factors including ischemia, ejection fraction, and late gadolinium enhancement (hazard ratio: 1.267; p < 0.001). Addition of stress GLS into a model with clinical and imaging predictors resulted in significant increase in the C-index (from 0.80 to 0.85; p = 0.031) and a continuous net reclassification improvement of 0.898 (95% confidence interval: 0.565 to 1.124). CONCLUSIONS Feature-tracking stress GLS measured during vasodilator stress CMR is an independent predictor of MACE in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease, incremental to common clinical and imaging risk factors. These findings suggest a role for feature-tracking derived stress GLS in identifying patients at highest risk of adverse events following stress CMR. (C) 2020 the American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier. All rights reserved.