Published Online
on November 3, 2003

A more recent version of this article appeared on November 11, 2003

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Submitted on February 18, 2003
Revised on August 13, 2003
Accepted on August 14, 2003

Stratification of Pediatric Heart Failure on the Basis of Neurohormonal and Cardiac Autonomic Nervous Activities in Patients With Congenital Heart Disease

Hideo Ohuchi MD^*, Hisashi Takasugi MD, Hiroyuki Ohashi MD, Yoko Okada MD, Osamu Yamada MD, Yasuo Ono MD, Toshikatsu Yagihara MD, and Shigeyuki Echigo MD

From the Departments of Pediatrics (H. Ohuchi, H.T., H. Ohashi, Y. Okada, O.Y., Y. Ono, S.E.) and Thoracic Surgery (T.Y.), National Cardiovascular Center, Osaka, Japan.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hohuchi{at}hsp.ncvc.go.jp.

Background--Stratification of pediatric patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) has been based on their hemodynamics and/or functional capacity. Our purpose was to compare cardiac autonomic nervous activity (CANA) and neurohormonal activities (NHA) with postoperative status in stable CHD patients with biventricular physiology.

Methods and Results--We divided 379 subjects (297 CHD patients, 28 dilated cardiomyopathy patient, and 54 control subjects) into 4 subgroups according to New York Heart Association (NYHA) class (1.3±0.7) and measured various CANA and NHA indices. Stepwise decreases in baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), heart rate variability (HRV), adrenergic imaging, and vital capacity (VC) were observed in proportion to functional capacity in normal to NYHA II patients (P<0.001). However, there were no differences in these indices between NYHA II and III+IV groups, whereas a stepwise proportional increase in NHA indices was observed in these groups (P<0.001). Natriuretic peptides differentiated all NYHA classes. BRS, HRV, and VC were greater in the adult patients than in the child patients (P<0.05 to 0.01), although the functional class in adult patients was lower. Cardiac surgeries resulted in low BRS and VC, and the VC reduction independently determined a small HRV. Even if functional class and ejection fraction were comparable, CANA and brain natriuretic peptide were lower in CHD patients than in dilated cardiomyopathy patients (P<0.05 to 0.001).

Conclusions--CANA and NHA indices are useful to stratify mild and severe heart failure in stable postoperative CHD patients, respectively. However, careful attention should be paid to age- and surgery-related influences on these indices.

Key words: heart defects, congenital • nervous system, autonomic • hormones • heart failure

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