[Left ventricular systolic and diastolic function and dysfunction]

The left ventricular systolic function--independently from the type of cardiac disease--determines the quality of life and the prognosis of the patients, so the examination of this parameter is indispensable. To measure it accurately is difficult, because the muscle fibers in the ventricular wall run partly circumferentially, partly longitudinally and tangentially and we have not any kind of method, which could have examined the function all of these differently contracting myocardial muscle fibers. To add these, the shape of the left ventricle is geometrically irregular, all ventricular segments move toward a "gravitational point" during the systole and backward during the diastole, and the heart also has a rotational motion in the chest during every cardiac cycle. Haemodynamic parameters (preload, afterload, heart rate and synchronous or asynchronous motion of the left ventricular walls) also can modify the left ventricular function. The ejection fraction is most frequently measured by echocardiography. M-mode, 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional echocardiography, Doppler methods, Doppler Myocardial Imaging (DMI), contrast echocardiography and color kinesis can be used to get more precise information about the left ventricular systolic function. The diastolic left ventricular function can be analysed using the mitral Doppler curve. The DMI, Strain Rate Imaging (SRI), contrast echocardiography and color kinesis improve the quality of imaging and so the accuracy of measurement. Using Doppler Myocardial Imaging and Strain Rate Imaging we can get information about the global and segmental left ventricular systolic and diastolic function. These parameters are well reproducible, and that is why they can be used in the assessment of the efficacy of pharmaceutical or other therapeutical procedures and following the changes in the clinical state of the patients.