Author information
1Veterans Affairs Cincinnati Healthcare System Cincinnati OH.
2University of Cincinnati OH.
3Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center Aurora CO.
4Denver Research Institute Aurora CO.
5Heart Institute, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati OH.
6CART Program, Office of Quality and Patient Safety, Veterans Health Administration Washington DC.
7University of Colorado School of Medicine Aurora CO.
8Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School Boston MA.
9Department of Medicine University of Maryland School of Medicine Baltimore MD.
10The University of Maryland-Institute for Health Computing Bethesda MD.
11Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Lung Vascular Research, Medical University of Graz Austria.
12Veteran's Affairs Long Beach Healthcare System Long Beach CA.
13Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System Boston MA.
Abstract
Background: Portopulmonary hypertension (PoPH), associated with increased mortality, can limit treatment options for liver diseases. Data on the continuum of clinical risk related to cardiopulmonary hemodynamics in PoPH are lacking.
Methods and results: As part of the United States national Veterans Affairs Clinical Assessment, Reporting, and Tracking database, we performed a retrospective cohort study of adults with cirrhosis undergoing right heart catheterization between October 1, 2017, and September 30, 2022. Pulmonary hypertension (mean pulmonary arterial pressure [mPAP] >20 mm Hg without PoPH) and PoPH (mPAP >20 mm Hg+pulmonary artery wedge pressure ≤15 mm Hg+pulmonary vascular resistance ≥3 WU) were defined by right heart catheterization hemodynamics. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards using natural splines for hemodynamic variables were used to evaluate the association between cardiopulmonary hemodynamics and mortality following right heart catheterization. A total of 4409 patients were included in the final analysis, predominantly men (96.3%), with a mean age of 68.5 years. Pulmonary hypertension and PoPH were observed in 71.6% and 10.2% of the cohort, respectively. Compared with a reference cardiac index of 2.5 L/min per m2, the hazard for mortality increased progressively with decreasing cardiac index, even after adjustment for mPAP and pulmonary vascular resistance. The minority of patients with PoPH (N=65, 14.5%) were prescribed pulmonary vasodilator therapy.
Conclusions: These data suggest that pulmonary hypertension and PoPH are prevalent in veterans with chronic liver disease, but low use of targeted PoPH therapy persists. Cardiac function discriminated mortality risk across a wide range of mPAP and pulmonary vascular resistance values and may diagnose and clarify prognosis in this patient population.