Reference value of left ventricular myocardial strain by computed tomography feature tracking in healthy adults

To determine the reference value of left ventricular (LV) myocardial strain in healthy subjects using cardiac computed tomography feature tracking (CT-FT).

This study retrospectively enrolled 128 healthy participants who underwent coronary CT angiography. All participants were free of known cardiovascular diseases and potential cardiovascular risk factors. Global and regional LV strain metrics, including longitudinal strain (LS), circumferential strain (CS), and radial strain (RS), were assessed.

The entire cohort included 47 men and 81 women, and the median age was 50.5 (47.0-57.0) years. There was no significant difference of age between females and males (P>0.05). Females demonstrated larger magnitudes of global LS, global CS, and global RS than males (all P<0.05). The LS in the apical slice and CS in the apical slice exhibited the highest magnitudes among the three LV slices. The largest magnitudes of LS and RS were observed in the lateral region, whereas the largest magnitude of CS was demonstrated in the septal region. The gender and LV ejection fraction (LVEF) were associated with global LS and global CS (all P<0.001), whereas only LVEF demonstrated the association with global RS (P<0.001). The global LV myocardial strain demonstrated good measurement reproducibility with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.836-0.918.

The global LV myocardial strain derived from CT-FT in healthy participants is sex-dependent; the LV myocardial strain varies in different levels and regions.