During today’s (Tuesday) Aortic Techniques & Technologies session, Hence Verhagen (Rotterdam, Netherlands) delivered a podium-first presentation on long-term health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after acute type B aortic dissection (ATBD), sharing data from a cross-sectional survey study.
“This is the first multicentre study to present on long-term HRQoL in patients treated for ATBD,” Verhagen informed the CX audience. He reported that QoL was “significantly” lower in both female and male type B dissection patients compared with the Dutch normative population in this study.
The researchers found no differences between female and male patients except for bodily pain being more common in females, and no differences between treatment groups. Furthermore, Verhagen shared that impairments to QoL mostly regarded physical status—going on to advise that patients may benefit from cardiac rehabilitation programmes—and that younger patients were more severely affected. He added that longer follow-up was associated with better QoL.
“To our surprise,” Verhagen continued, “we did not find differences in mental health compared to the general population, but this may not have been captured by the SF-36 questionnaire.” Verhagen also shared that the researchers “could not find influence of (re)interventions during follow-up on QoL,” and commented that this was likely due to limited sample size and study design.
In addition, the presenter noted that the team assessed HRQoL only at one timepoint and therefore no time trend analysis could be performed. He added that the response rate was 55% with some non-responder bias present, as this group had higher comorbidities at baseline. Verhagen concluded that long-term HRQoL was impaired in ATBD patients compared to the Dutch general population, particularly regarding physical status and in younger patients.
“This warrants more attention for QoL during follow-up,” he said, noting that rehabilitation programmes including exercise and physical support may improve QoL.
