Speckle Tracking Imaging In Assessment Of The Left Ventricular Myocardium Function Of Hypertension Patients With Normal Left Ventricular Geometry

Objective To evaluate the value of speckle tracking imaging (STI) in assessing left ventricular myocardium function of hyPertension patients with normal left ventricular geometry.Methods Forty hypertension Patients with normal filling (group A),40with abnormal relaxation (group B) and30normal controls (group NC) were studied. The global Peak systolic longitudinal strain rate, the mean Peak early diastolic longitudinal strain rate and the mean peak LV systolic longitudinal strain rate during atrial systole of whole-layer myocardium and subendomyocardium (including the basal, interval and apical plane) at long-axis of left ventricle views, apical4-chamber views and apical2-chamber views were measured. Peak rotation on basal plane, peak rotation on apical plan, peak twist, twist at aortic valve closure, twist at mitral valve opening, untwisting rate and twisting half-time of left ventricular short-axis views at the levels of mitral valve and apex were calculated.Results Compared with those in group NC, the patients in group A had lower values of subendomyocardium GSrL S (P<0.01), whole-layer myocardium and subendomyocardium GSrL E (P<0.05), and UntwR (P<0.05), but higher values of subendomyocardium GSrL A (P<0.05), MV-Prot, AP-Prot, Ptw, AVCtw, MVOtw (P<0.05), and HTU (P<0.05). Compared with those in group NC, GSrL S, GSrL E and UntwR decreased in group B (P<0.05), but GSrL A, MV-Prot, AP-Prot, Ptw, AVCtw, MVOtw and HTU increased (P<0.05). Compared with group A, AP-Prot increased in group B (P<0.05), but UntwR decreased (P<0.05).Conclusion STI is of great value in quantitative analysis of the left ventricle myocardium function through detecting the subendomyocardium global peak systolic longitudinal strain rate and twisting parameters. It is also a useful tool to assess the early damage of left ventricle myocardium in patients with essential hypertension.