Comorbidity and Ventricular and Vascular Structure and Function in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction: A Community Based Study Mohammed et al: Comorbidity in HFpEF

Background—Patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) display increased adiposity and multiple comorbidities, factors that in themselves may influence cardiovascular (CV) structure and function. This has sparked debate as to whether HFpEF represents a distinct disease or an amalgamation of comorbidities. We hypothesized that fundamental CV structural and functional alterations are characteristic of HFpEF, even after accounting for body size and comorbidities. Methods and Results—Comorbidity adjusted CV structural and functional parameters scaled to independently generated and age appropriate allometric powers were compared in communitybased cohorts of HFpEF patients (n=386) and age/gender-matched healthy (CON, n=193) and hypertensive (HTN, n=386) controls. Within HFpEF patients, body size and concomitant comorbidity adjusted CV structural and functional parameters and survival were compared in those with and without individual comorbidities. Among HFpEF patients, comorbidities (obesity, anemia, diabetes and renal dysfunction) were each associated with unique clinical, structural, functional and prognostic profiles. However, after accounting for age, gender, body size and comorbidities, greater concentric hypertrophy, atrial enlargement and systolic, diastolic and vascular dysfunction were consistently observed in HFpEF compared to CON and HTN. Conclusions—Comorbidities influence ventricular-vascular properties and outcomes in HFpEF, yet fundamental disease-specific changes in cardiovascular structure and function underlie this disorder. These data support the search for mechanistically-targeted therapies in this disease.