Correlation across modalities and clinical phenotypes between left Ventricular global longitudinal strain by...

Left Ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV-GLS) can be measured by speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) and by cardiac magnetic resonance feature tracking (CMR-FT), but the strength of cross-modal correlation and its consistency across clinical phenotypes remain uncertain.

We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies reporting LV-GLS by both STE and CMR-FT in the same cohorts. Reported patient-level correlation coefficients (Pearson r) between modalities were pooled using Fisher's z-transformation and random-effects models, with prespecified subgroup analyses for healthy cohorts and cohorts with cardiovascular disease (CD).

Eleven studies met inclusion criteria; 18 cohorts (n = 624) reported patient-level correlations and were analyzed. Overall, STE GLS and CMR-FT GLS showed a moderate pooled correlation (sample-size-weighted r = 0.57; 95 % CI 0.32 to 0.74) with substantial heterogeneity (I² = 91.6 %). In healthy cohorts (5 cohorts; n = 87) correlation was low and not statistically significant (r = 0.38; 95 % CI -0.37 to 0.83). In CD cohorts (13 cohorts; n = 537), correlation was higher and statistically significant (r = 0.62; 95 % CI 0.38 to 0.78).

STE and CMR-FT GLS show a moderate cross-modal correlation overall, which is attenuated in health and stronger in CD. These findings quantify association rather than individual-level agreement and do not support numerical interchangeability between modalities.