Longitudinal assessment of type I diabetes mellitus using conventional echocardiography and speckle‐tracking based strain imaging

Abstract

Cardiac complications, such as cardiomyopathy, are the leading cause of mortality among diabetic patients. Sensitive in vivo imaging is essential for assessment of cardiovascular function within small animal models. Echocardiographic speckle‐tracking based strain analysis has been suggested as a way to noninvasively evaluate cardiac performance in small animal models of acute pathological insult. The goal of this study was to provide a comparative longitudinal analysis of conventional echocardiographic and speckle‐tracking based strain imaging analyses in a small animal model of diabetes mellitus. Six week old male FVB mice were made diabetic through multiple low‐dose streptozotocin injections. M‐mode and B‐mode echocardiographic analyses revealed no differences in ejection fraction and fractional shortening in diabetic animals relative to control until approximately 5 weeks post diabetes onset (P<0.05). Diabetic mice showed changes in average time‐to‐peak analysis using speckle‐tracking 1 week post diabetes onset and radial strain alterations at 4 weeks post diabetes onset relative to control (P<0.05 for both). These findings indicate that assessment of myocardial strain may efficiently detect early contractile changes which may precede functional alterations observed with conventional M‐mode and B‐mode echocardiography. (Support: NIH DP2DK083095, NIH T32HL090610, AHA 10PRE3420006)