The Impact of Brain Atrophy in the Patient with Young Patients with Severe Heart Failure

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) influence several important organs, these are known as cardiorenal syndrome, cardiohepatic syndrome. Recently, HF is recognized the risk factor for cognitive impairment and associated with poorer cognitive performance. However, there are no report mentioned the relationship between brain atrophy and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in young patient with severe HF. Methods: A total 165 patients with severe HF such as the candidate of heart transplantation needed a consultation Liaison Psychiatry form 2009 to 2014. We analyzed 32 patients aged under 55 years old without past history of cerebral artery disease. We evaluated the brain atrophy using head computed tomography (CT) data by AZE^R VitualPlace and compared between severely reduced LVEF group; LVEF ≦ 30% and moderately reduced LVEF group;LVEF>30%. Results: The mean LVEF in severely reduced LVEF group (N = 22) was 21.7 ± 5.9% and those in moderately reduced LVEF group (N = 10) was 42.7 ± 9.1%. There are no difference in age, NYHA class, BNP, and renal function in both group. There are no relationship between the brain atrophy area and BNP. However, the brain atrophy were significantly bigger in severely reduced LVEF group (mean 13.0% [10.6,13.7]) than those of moderately reduced LVEF group (mean 10.8% [5.1,12.5]) (P = .022). Conclusions: This is a first report to evaluate the brain atrophy area by CT in young sever heart failure patients.