Systolic dysfunction and mortality in critically ill patients: more data are needed to believe in this association!

Abstract

We read with interest the large study conducted by Cavefors et al. 1 assessing the impact of left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) on mortality in critically ill patients. The authors defined LVSD as an ejection fraction (EF) < 50% and/or the presence of regional wall motion abnormalities (RWMA) and found a prevalence of 24% (n = 100) with roughly half of them (n = 52) experiencing an LVSD not attributable to a cardiac disease.