2. Materials and Methods
Data for the present study was obtained from an institutional advanced heart failure registry that prospectively collected demographic, clinical, echocardiography, invasive and outcome data from patients with advanced heart failure that are candidates for LVAD implantation or cardiac transplantation. All patients that were aged 18 years and older, had complete pre-implantation and follow-up records and had an LVAD implanted in a non-emergent setting were considered eligible for the present analysis. Per registry protocol, all patients have offline echocardiographic images recorded and stored prior to LVAD implantation. Patients with missing echocardiographic or catheterization data that would prevent calculating PDI or other parameters used in statistical analyses were excluded. No other exclusion criteria were used. Out of 54 patients that were initially assessed for eligibility, 49 were included to the final analysis after applying these criteria.
Demographic, clinical, laboratory and catheterization data were obtained using registry data. Echocardiographic measurements and analyses were done using stored offline images as detailed below. No specific written consent was sought for the present study, but a written consent from all patients were obtained prior to inclusion to the institutional registry. Present study was carried out according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki in 1975, and a local ethic committee approval was obtained.