Clinical demonstration of vibration-induced depression of left ventricular function

In experimental studies, minute sinusoidal vibration has been reported to induce functional depression of the left ventricle and to be an index for evaluation of myocardial crossbridge kinetics. Therefore, to examine whether or not this vibration-induced functional depression could also be observed in the human ventricle, motion of the left ventricular (LV) wall or LV pressure was measured by echocardiography (n = 16) or by left heart catheterization (n = 4), in which 100 Hz, 2.07 mm-amplitude sinusoidal vibration was applied to the subject's precordium. In the echocardiographic study, left ventricular wall shortening did not change by vibration in nine healthy volunteers, but was depressed in two patients with aortic regurgitation (AR) and in one patient with ischemic heart disease (IHD). In measurement of LV pressure, the decrease in LV systolic pressure caused by vibration was obviously observed in two patients (AR and IHD) but was not observed in two patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. These results suggest that we might be able to extend previously proposed experimental idea on early detection of the abnormality in myocardial crossbridge kinetics to the clinical setting.