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Transthoracic Speckle Tracking Echocardiography for the Quantitative Assessment of Left Ventricular Myocardial Deformation
Published on: October 20, 2016
Segmental analysis of carotid arterial strain using speckle-tracking
Eric Y Yang1, Hisham Dokainish, Salim S Virani
1Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Summary
Speckle-tracking ultrasound reliably measures carotid arterial strain (CAS). Patients with diabetes exhibit reduced CAS compared to healthy individuals, indicating potential arterial stiffness differences.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Imaging
- Biomedical Engineering
- Vascular Physiology
Background:
- Arterial stiffness is linked to aging and cardiovascular risks.
- Speckle-tracking is a validated method for myocardial strain analysis.
- Carotid arterial strain (CAS) assessment using speckle-tracking is under investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the reproducibility of speckle-tracking for measuring CAS in healthy volunteers.
- To compare CAS between healthy individuals and patients with diabetes.
- To investigate the relationship between diabetes and arterial strain.
Main Methods:
- Bilateral electrocardiographically gated ultrasound scans of distal common carotid arteries were performed twice on 10 healthy volunteers.
- Speckle-tracking analysis was used to measure peak CAS in six segments.
- Global and far wall average CAS values were compared between 20 healthy subjects and 21 patients with diabetes.
Main Results:
- Global CAS (ICC=0.40) and far wall average CAS (ICC=0.63) demonstrated the highest test-retest reliability.
- Patients with diabetes showed significantly lower global CAS (4.29%) and far wall average CAS (4.30%) compared to controls (5.48% and 5.58%, respectively).
- These differences remained significant after adjusting for age, gender, race, and hemodynamic factors.
Conclusions:
- Speckle-tracking is a feasible and moderately reliable method for measuring CAS.
- Reduced CAS in patients with diabetes suggests increased arterial stiffness.
- This technique may offer a valuable tool for assessing vascular health in diabetic populations.
