We enrolled 156 patients with HF and left ventricular ejection fraction <45 % , who were followed up for a mean (SD) period of 36 ¡À 19 months. At baseline, all the patients underwent a complete echocardiography with aortic PWV as measured by Doppler ultrasonography and peak exercise oxygen consumption as measured by bicycle exercise testing with expiratory gas exchange monitoring. During the follow-up period, 20 patients (12.8 % ) died and 15 patients (9.6 % ) were hospitalized for worsening HF. In the Kaplan-Meier analysis, patients in the first tertile of aortic PWV had a lower risk of developing cardiac death or hospitalization (combined end point) than those in the second and third tertile combined (P < .001). In Cox regression analysis, increased aortic PWV (both as a continuous and categorical variable) was significantly associated with an increased risk of adverse clinical outcomes after adjustment for peak exercise oxygen consumption and other clinical risk factors (P < .05).
Increased aortic PWV, as measured by echocardiography, independently predicted adverse clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalization) among patients with HF.