Background: It has no completely clear impact of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in the preservation of the left ventricular contractile reserve in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. The objective was to determine the difference in the incidence of risk factors in these patients with and without preserved left ventricular contractile reserve.

Methods: For this purpose, we studied 55 consecutive patients with dilated cardiomyopathy treated in the Outpatient Clinic for Heart Failure in the Dedinje Cardiovascular Institute in Belgrade. All patients underwent exercise stress echocardiography test to determine the presence of left ventricular contractile reserve. Contractile reserve was defined as the difference in wall motion score index of left ventricular in the first minute of the maximum workload in the test and their values in basal conditions, higher or equal to 0.19.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 54.98 ±9.84, and 49 (89.1%) were male. Among patients with and without preserved left ventricular contractile reserve were found differences in the prevalence of hypertension (15.8 vs. 44.4%, p=0.034), while the presence of smoking (42.1 vs. 33.3%, p=0.52), hyperlipoproteinemia (36.8 vs. 44%, p=0.59), diabetes (15.8 vs. 25%, p=0.43), body mass index (27.27 ±3.51 vs. 27.52 ±4.66, p=0.83), hereditary predisposition (42.1 vs. 63.9%, p=0.12) and alcohol consumption (15.8 vs. 13.9%, p=0.85) was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: The presence of long-term hypertension adversely affect the preservation of left ventricular contractile reserve in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. (1-3)