Click on image to view larger version.
FIGURE 5. Incremental prognostic values of combined assessment of the plasma BNP level, the cardiac 123I-MIBG activity, diabetes mellitus (DM), or chronic renal dysfunction (CRD), all of which are significant predictors of fatal pump failure in univariate analysis (Table 2). Hazard ratios (
) for fatal pump failure increased to 34.413 when both the plasma BNP level and the cardiac 123I-MIBG activity were used, but no further improvement was achieved in any other combination. On the other hand, the greatest prevalence (62.5%) of fatal pump failure (
) was observed when all of these variables were used.
