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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Transthoracic Speckle Tracking Echocardiography for the Quantitative Assessment of Left Ventricular Myocardial Deformation
09:05

Transthoracic Speckle Tracking Echocardiography for the Quantitative Assessment of Left Ventricular Myocardial Deformation

Published on: October 20, 2016

20.2K

Incremental value of left atrial active function measured by speckle tracking echocardiography in patients with

Kaori Fujimoto1, Katsuji Inoue1, Makoto Saito2

  • 1Department of Cardiology, Pulmonology, Hypertension and Nephrology, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Toon, Ehime, Japan.

Echocardiography (Mount Kisco, N.Y.)
|April 13, 2018
PubMed

Insights

In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), impaired left atrial (LA) active function is linked to a higher risk of cardiac events. Assessing LA function may aid in risk stratification for HCM patients.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Cardiovascular Imaging
  • Biomedical Engineering

Background:

  • Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) affects left ventricular (LV) diastolic function, causing left atrial (LA) enlargement.
  • Standard Doppler echocardiography struggles to accurately assess LV diastolic function in HCM due to heterogeneous hypertrophy.
  • LA function assessment may offer valuable risk stratification for HCM patients.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the prognostic impact of left atrial (LA) function in patients diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).
  • To determine if LA function indices can predict adverse cardiac events in HCM.
  • To explore the utility of LA strain analysis for risk stratification in HCM.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective enrollment of 76 HCM patients and 26 controls, utilizing echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.
  • Speckle tracking echocardiography was employed to quantify LA function, dividing it into active and passive strain indices.
  • LA strain rate peaks during LV systole were used to define active and passive LA function.

Main Results:

  • HCM patients exhibited significantly impaired LA strain indices and increased LA volume index compared to controls.
  • During a 2.6-year follow-up, 14 HCM patients experienced cardiac events (heart failure hospitalization or atrial fibrillation).
  • Reduced LA active strain (<20.3%) was associated with a higher incidence of cardiac events, independent of other clinical and echocardiographic factors.

Conclusions:

  • Diminished LA active function is a significant predictor of adverse cardiac events in patients with HCM.
  • LA active strain serves as an independent and incremental risk marker for cardiovascular outcomes in HCM.
  • LA function assessment, particularly active strain, holds potential for improving risk stratification in HCM management.
Abstract

Keywords:
atrial fibrillationheart failurehypertrophic cardiomyopathystrain

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