Tissue Doppler imaging for the assessment of left ventricular systolic and diastolic functions

Doppler tissue imaging is a technique that allows recording of the low Doppler shift frequencies of high energy generated by the ventricular walls motion that are purposely filtered out in standard Doppler blood flow studies. Doppler tissue imaging can be performed with the use of pulsed Doppler, color two-dimensional Doppler, and color M-mode Doppler. Pulsed Doppler tissue imaging offers a high temporal resolution and therefore can be appropriately used for analysis of temporal relation between myocardium systolic and diastolic velocity waves. Color two-dimensional Doppler provides a good spatial resolution that permits differentiation of the velocity profiles between subendocardial and subepicardial layers but is limited by its poor temporal resolution. M-mode color-coded tissue imaging is characterized by a high spatiotemporal resolution, but sampling is only performed on a single line. Both two-dimensional and M-mode color-coded tissue imaging require specific modification of the current ultrasound machines. The present article reviews how Doppler tissue imaging may contribute to the noninvasive assessment of systolic and diastolic myocardial functions.