Prognostic value of chronotropic incompetence in elderly patients undergoing exercise echocardiography.

BACKGROUND Chronotropic incompetence (CI), defined as failure to achieve less than 80% of age-expected heart rate, is a predictor of mortality and adverse cardiovascular events and may confer a worse prognosis in elderly diabetic individuals. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the prognostic value of chronotropic incompetence (CI) in elderly diabetic patients considering endpoints with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and overall mortality and compare clinical and echocardiographic characteristics between patients with and without CI. METHOD A total of 298 elderly diabetic patients undergoing exercise echocardiography (EE) were studied from January 2001 to December 2010. Of these, 109 were chronotropic incompetent (group 1) and were compared with the chronotropic competent ones (group 2) regarding the occurrence of cardiovascular events, clinical and echocardiographic characteristics. RESULTS Chronotropic incompetents patients showed a higher frequency of cerebrovascular disease (9.2% vs. 3.2, p = 0.027) and higher mortality was observed in those who had cerebrovascular disease or acute myocardial infarction. The presence of typical angina and dyspnea prior to the performance of EE and male gender were more frequent in group 1. Rest and exercise left ventricular wall motion score index, rate of left ventricle mass and left atrium diameter were higher in chronotropic incompetent individuals. CONCLUSION Chronotropic incompetence was independently associated with the occurrence of cerebrovascular disease in elderly diabetic individuals.