Transmural dispersion of myofiber mechanics: implications for electrical heterogeneity in vivo

We investigated whether transmural mechanics could yield insight into the transmural electrical sequence.

Although the concept of transmural dispersion of repolarization has helped explain a variety of arrhythmias, its presence in vivo is still disputable.

We studied the time course of transmural myofiber mechanics in the anterior left ventricle of normal canines in vivo (n = 14) using transmural bead markers under biplane cineradiography. In 4 of these animals, plunge electrodes were placed in the myocardial tissue within the bead set to measure transmural electrical sequence.

The onset of myofiber shortening was earliest at endocardial layers and progressively delayed toward epicardial layers (p < 0.001), resulting in transmural dispersion of myofiber shortening of 39 ms. The onset of myofiber relaxation was earliest at epicardial layers and most delayed at subendocardial layers (p = 0.004), resulting in transmural dispersion of myofiber relaxation of 83 ms. There was no significant transmural gradient in electrical repolarization (p = NS).

Despite lack of evidence of significant transmural gradient in electrical repolarization in vivo, there is transmural dispersion of myofiber relaxation as well as shortening.