Global and regional myocardial function quantification by two-dimensional strain: application in hypertrophic...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Strain imaging is a sensitive indicator for early systolic dysfunction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).
• Conventional Doppler-derived strain methods have limitations including poor reproducibility and angle dependency, hindering clinical application.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize global and regional systolic function abnormalities in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).
• To evaluate a novel method for measuring strain from standard two-dimensional echocardiographic images.

Main Methods:

• Echocardiographic examinations were conducted on 26 patients with nonobstructive HCM and 45 healthy controls.
• A dedicated software package analyzed bidimensional acquisitions to measure longitudinal, transverse, circumferential, and radial strain from apical and parasternal short-axis views.

Main Results:

• All components of systolic strain (longitudinal, transverse, circumferential, radial) were significantly reduced in HCM patients compared to controls (p < 0.001).
• Longitudinal septal strain was notably lower in patients with asymmetrical HCM.
• The method demonstrated good reproducibility with interobserver and intraobserver variabilities around 11%.

Conclusions:

• Two-dimensional strain analysis is a simple, rapid, and reproducible technique for assessing systolic strain components.
• This novel method effectively identifies early systolic function abnormalities in HCM patients, even when standard measures appear normal.