The prognostic importance of a history of hypertension in patients with symptomatic heart failure is substantially worsened by a short mitral inflow deceleration time

3078 consecutively hospitalized heart failure patients (NYHA classes II-IV) were screened for the EchoCardiography and Heart Outcome Study (ECHOS). The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was estimated by 2 dimensional transthoracic echocardiography in all patients and a subgroup of 878 patients had additional data on pulsed wave Doppler assessment of transmitral flow available. A restrictive filling (RF) was defined as a mitral inflow deceleration time ≤140？ms. Patients were followed for a median of 6.8 (Inter Quartile Range 6.6-7.0) years and multivariable Cox regression models were used to assess the risk of all-cause mortality associated with hypertension.The study population had a mean age of 73？±？11？years. 39% were female, 27% had a history of hypertension and 48% had a RF. Over the study period, 64% of the population died. Hypertension was not associated with increased risk of mortality, hazard ratio (HR) 0.95 (0.85-1.05). LVEF did not modify this relationship (p for interaction？=？0.7), but RF pattern substantially influenced the outcomes associated with hypertension (p for interaction？<？0.001); HR 0.75 (0.57-0.99) and 1.41 (1.08-1.84) in patients without and with RF, respectively.In patients with symptomatic heart failure, a history of hypertension is associated with a substantially increased relative risk of mortality among patients with a restrictive transmitral filling pattern.