Higher dietary lycopene intake is associated with longer cardiac event-free survival in patients with heart failure.
BACKGROUND
The antioxidant lycopene may be beneficial for patients with heart failure (HF). Processed tomato products are a major source of lycopene, although they are also high in sodium. Increased sodium intake may counter the positive antioxidant effect of lycopene.


METHODS
This was a prospective study of 212 patients with HF. Dietary intake of lycopene and sodium was obtained from weighted 4-day food diaries. Patients were grouped by the median split of lycopene of 2471 µg/day and stratified by daily sodium levels above and below 3 g/day. Patients were followed for 1 year to collect survival and hospitalization data. Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to compare cardiac event-free survival between lycopene groups within each stratum of sodium intake.


RESULTS
Higher lycopene intake was associated with longer cardiac event-free survival compared with lower lycopene intake (p = 0.003). The worst cardiac event-free survival was observed in the low lycopene intake group regardless of sodium intake (> 3 g/day HR = 3.01; p = 0.027 and ≤ 3 g/day HR= 3.34; p = 0.023).


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that increased lycopene intake has the potential to improve cardiac event-free survival in patients with HF independent of sodium intake.
College of Nursing, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA. mjbidd0@uky.edu
Martha
M
Biddle
Debra
D
Moser
Eun Kyeung
EK
Song
Seongkum
S
Heo
Heather
H
Payne-Emerson
Sandra B
SB
Dunbar
Susan
S
Pressler
Terry
T
Lennie
D000368:Aged; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000008:administration & dosage; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000008:administration & dosage; D015930:Diet Records; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D000077276:Lycopene; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012982:Sodium, Dietary
D000975:Antioxidants; D012982:Sodium, Dietary; D002338:Carotenoids; D000077276:Lycopene