Calcium channel autoantibodies predicted sudden cardiac death and all-cause mortality in patients with ischemic and nonischemic chronic heart failure.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether CC-AAbs levels could predict prognosis in CHF patients. A total of 2096 patients with CHF (841 DCM patients and 1255 ICM patients) and 834 control subjects were recruited. CC-AAbs were detected and the relationship between CC-AAbs and patient prognosis was analyzed. During a median follow-up time of 52 months, there were 578 deaths. Of these, sudden cardiac death (SCD) occurred in 102 cases of DCM and 121 cases of ICM. The presence of CC-AAbs in patients was significantly higher than that of controls (both P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that positive CC-AAbs could predict SCD (HR 3.191, 95% CI 1.598-6.369 for DCM; HR 2.805, 95% CI 1.488-5.288 for ICM) and all-cause mortality (HR 1.733, 95% CI 1.042-2.883 for DCM; HR 2.219, 95% CI 1.461-3.371 for ICM) in CHF patients. A significant association between CC-AAbs and non-SCD (NSCD) was found in ICM patients (HR = 1.887, 95% CI 1.081-3.293). Our results demonstrated that the presence of CC-AAbs was higher in CHF patients versus controls and corresponds to a higher incidence of all-cause death and SCD. Positive CC-AAbs may serve as an independent predictor for SCD and all-cause death in these patients.