Distribution of left ventricular longitudinal peak systolic strain and impact of low frame rate

The myocardium has complex 3-D motion that is frequently described using ultrasound (US) Doppler techniques that are limited to recording velocities in one dimension only. Studies using 3-D tagged magnetic resonance show that the myocardium has strain components with varying angles throughout the myocardium. Despite this, there seems to be a belief that the left ventricular longitudinal strain distribution should be homogeneous. When measuring myocardial strain, there are several parameters for the clinician to decide on, one of them being recording frame rate. The current study aims to further investigate the alleged homogeneity of the longitudinal myocardial strain distribution and to discover the impact that the frame rate has on these measurements. Myocardial strain was measured in 43 healthy individuals at different frame rates. Analysis of variance results clearly demonstrate that the strain is not uniformly distributed over the wall; there seems to be an increasing strain from apex toward the base. However, subjects exist with different distributions; thus, it is not possible to conclude that certain strain patterns are normal. Reduced frame rate had a highly significant impact on the measured strain results and it is seen that, at low frame rates, the strain values were reduced.