[Left ventricular systolic and diastolic asynchronism in patients with ischemic cardiopathy: its effects on ventricular filling].

To assess whether left ventricular asynchrony would influence filling in coronary artery disease, 27 patients with coronary artery disease and 39 normal subjects were studied by rest radionuclide angiography. Lower ejection fraction and peak filling rate were found in the coronary artery disease group (56% +/- 17% versus 65% +/- 6%, p less than 0.05; 1.8 +/- 0.7 versus 2.9 +/- 1.4 end-diastolic volumes/s, p less than 0.05). Moreover, the patients with coronary artery disease had a prolonged isovolumic relaxation period (114 +/- 86 ms versus 70 +/- 43 ms, p less than 0.05). Two indices of left ventricular asynchrony were evaluated: the coefficient of variation of regional time to end-systole, and the coefficient of variation of regional time to peak filling rate. The coefficient of variation of regional time to peak filling rate was higher in the coronary artery disease group (10.1% +/- 10%) than in the normal subjects (6.2% +/- 3.7%, p less than 0.05). Both these parameters were inversely related to global peak filling rate in the coronary artery disease group. These findings suggest that in patients with coronary artery disease left ventricular systolic and diastolic asynchrony plays a role in determining left ventricular diastolic properties.