[Severity and non-uniformity of regional wall motion in dilated cardiomyopathy evaluated by two-dimensional...

A two and a half year follow-up study of segmental left ventricular wall motion was performed by two-dimensional echocardiography for 26 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Segmental analysis of left ventricular wall motion abnormalities (WMA) was performed using 11 segments obtained by short- and long-axis views of the left ventricle. Wall motion in each segment was classified and assigned a numerical score as normal (0), hypokinetic (1), severely hypokinetic (2), and akinetic or dyskinetic (3). Based on this categorization, a wall motion abnormality index (WMAI) was derived as an overall assessment of left ventricular asynergy. The intersegmental standard deviation of the wall motion abnormality score was used as an index of left ventricular asynergy (non-uniformity index: NUI). During the follow-up period, the wall motion abnormality index increased in all of the 26 patients (from 1.23 to 1.82, p less than 0.001), but the non-uniformity index did not change (from 0.72 to 0.73). When comparing the non-uniformity index among three groups classified according to the grade of wall motion abnormality, both at the initial and during follow-up studies, the moderate wall motion abnormality group (1.0 less than or equal to WMAI less than 2.0) had larger non-uniformity indexes (0.83, 0.84) than the other groups, and the severe non-uniformity index (greater than or equal to 0.9) was observed solely in the moderate group. In the follow-up study, these 26 patients were categorized in two groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)