"RFEF" and mitral regurgitation jet direction: surrogate markers for likelihood of left ventricle reverse remodeling in patients with moderate chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation.

Objective: Surgical management of moderate chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation (CIMR) is controversial. We propose a simplified classification of moderate CIMR based on regurgitant fraction (RF), ejection fraction (EF), and jet direction (central/eccentric) to predict left ventricle (LV) remodeling and identify patient subsets which need mitral valve (MV) repair along with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

Methods: In this prospective controlled study (n = 210), patients with moderate CIMR were randomized. Group I (n = 106) underwent off-pump CABG alone while group II (n = 104) underwent CABG + MV repair. The product of regurgitation fraction and ejection fraction ("RFEF") was taken as a surrogate for myocardial reserve. The cut-off defined was 0.12; patients with RFEF ≤ 0.12 were categorized as the "bad" and those with RFEF > 0.12 as the "good" subset. The patients were further subdivided on the basis of their mitral regurgitation (MR) jet direction (central/eccentric). The percentage improvement in left ventricular end-systolic volume index (LVESVI) and MR grade were recorded 6 monthly.

Results: Analysis of the continuous variable "RFEF" in conjunction with jet direction was performed. At 12 months, the patient in good subset with central direction of jet showed improvement in LVESVI % in both groups (p = 0.428), while the patients in bad subset with eccentric direction of jet showed significantly higher improvement in LVESVI %, group II as compared to group I (p = 0.004).

Conclusions: This study thus identifies "RFEF" as a surrogate for reverse remodeling capacity. In association with MR jet direction, predicts the subset of moderate CIMR patients most likely to have maximum LVESVI and MR grade reduction.