Clinical Study Of Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction With Contrast Echocardiography And Three-dimensional Speckle Tracking In Patients Elderly

BackgroundHeart failure(HF) is the common end-point of various cardiovascular diseases. Individuals are typically asymptomatic in the early stage and aggravate gradually to the serious decompensated cardiac insufficiency. Because the early diagnosis and therapy can delay or prevent the onset of overt HF,it is necessary and of great importance for all the cardiovascular patients to monitor their cardiac function in time.ObjectiveEjection fraction(EF) is the most commonly used index to evaluate LV systolic function. In some cases,EF is not measured accurately because of the unclear image.In this study,LVEF will be evaluated by left ventricular contrast echocardiography and three-dimensional speckle tracking techniques, with radionuclide cardiac imaging as the reference stangard.We aim to find accurate,safe,quickly and repeatable non-invasive imaging method for older people.Methods and ResultsTwenty four patients, whose LV endocardial borders wre not detected in at least two segments,were injected SonoVue echocardiographic contrast agent.Echocardiograms were evaluated for the LV endocardial border delineation,and EF was measured before and after contrast echocardiography. The score of LV endocardial border before contrast injection was 14.13±1.73, and it was 20.46±1.59 after that (P<0.01).Contrast echocardiography was superior to tissue harmonic imaging for EF measurement, and the correlation between Radionuclide and after Contrast echocardiography means 0.82. Assessment of LVEF by 3DT has significant statistical difference compared with Radionuclide,and with no significant correlation, but it may be clearly related to image quality.Conclusion1,The application of SonoVue ultrasound contrast agent in the elderly population over the age of 60 is safe and effective.2,Contrast echocardiography is superior to tissue harmonic imaging for EF measurement and LV endocardial border delineation,3,3DT is also a rapid and relatively accurate method for the assessment of global left ventricular systolic function.