Clinical outcomes of the participants according to LVEF
The 3-year clinical outcomes of all patients (REF vs. PEF groups) are presented in Table 3. The mortality rate and the incidences of stroke and bleeding were not significantly different between the two groups. Two patients died during the observation period; the causes were hepatic encephalopathy with liver cirrhosis and newly diagnosed terminal cancer in the REF and PEF groups, respectively. However, the rate of HF hospitalisation (29.2% vs 8.9%, p < 0.02) and incidence of AF with RVR (20.8% vs 3.3%, p < 0.01) were significantly higher in the REF group than in the PEF group. Time-dependent Kaplan-Meier analyses and log-rank tests revealed a high rate of HF hospitalisation in the REF group (Fig 1a). Cox proportional hazards models with univariate and multivariateanalyses found that reduced LVEF (<50%) was an important independent predictor of HF hospitalisation (Table 4).