Baseline characteristics
In the TCM group, 83.3 % of patients were men; the mean age of the study population was 57 ± 13.0 years. Of these patients, 94.4 % had HF symptoms of New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class ≥ II, being borderline significant compared to DCM and ICM patients (Table 1). The prevalence of fever was higher in the ICM group. Patients with TCM presented with a mean heart rate of 122 ± 25 beats/min. At baseline, 72.2 % of patients had atrial fibrillation or typical atrial flutter, the remaining patients presented with inadequate sinus tachycardia, atypical AV-node reentry tachycardia, or frequent premature ventricular complexes each (Table 1).
The majority of TCM patients received rhythm control therapy. Of these, 44.4 % underwent electrical cardioversion, and 38.9 % also underwent ablation. Heart rate at follow-up was similar in all groups, a finding indicating sufficient efficacy of antiarrhythmic therapy in patients with TCM (Table 1). On admission, patients with TCM had LV end-diastolic diameter similar to those of patients with DCM; however, LVEF at baseline was significantly lower in the TCM group (Table 2). As expected, the improvement of LVEF was significantly greater in patients with TCM compared with patients with ICM or DCM (Figure 1).