Clinical value on the evaluation of diastolic function in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy by Doppler tissue imaging

Abstract

Objective To detect the clinical value on the evaluation of diastolic function in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy(DCM) by Doppler tissue imaging(DTI). Methods The left ventricular basal walls' DTI were examined in 33 patients with DCM and 30 normal people. The early and late myocardial diastolic velocities, velocity time integraLs, left ventricular end diastolic diameter(LVEDd), end diastolic volume(LVEDV),mitral early filling velocity(ME), decel-eration time(MDT), late filling velocity(MA) were measured. Left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) was calculated by modified Simpson's method. Results Compared with control group, LVEDd and LVEDV in patients with DCM were sig-nificantly increased(P <0.01), LVEF was decreased (P <0.01). There was no significant difference between the two groups for ME, MDT, MA (P ＞ 0.05). There were significant differences between two groups for basal left ventricular walls' early diastolic velocities, late diastolic velocities, velocity time integrals(P < 0.01) except basal posterior wall's late diastolic velocity, velocity time integral and basal anterior wall' s late diastolic velocity time integral (P ＞ 0.05). Conclusions The significant decreases of basal left ventricular walls' myocardial early and late diastolic velocities, veloc-ity time integrals in patients with DCM meant impairment of left ventricular diastolic function, and that there are no signifi-cant changes of mitral filling velocities between two groups indicated that DTI is better for evaluation of left ventricular dias-tolic function than conventional Doppler flow imaging. Key words: Echocardiography; Doppler tissue imaging; Cardiomyopathy, dilated; Myocardial function, diastole