[Estimation of left ventricular diastolic characteristics in patients with myocardial ischemia by pulsed Doppler echocardiography: transmitral blood flow velocity in postextrasystolic beats].

To investigate diastolic dynamics of the left ventricle in postextrasystolic (PES) beats during myocardial ischemia induced by rapid atrial pacing (RAP), transmitral blood flow velocity was evaluated using pulsed Doppler echocardiography in 13 subjects. The subjects consisted of eight patients with ischemic heart disease and five healthy subjects. An atrial extrasystole was artificially induced before and immediately after RAP, while the transmitral flow velocity was recorded continuously. The ratio of the early peak diastolic velocity to the peak atrial velocity (A/E) on PES beat was less than that in a basic beat without an extrasystole. The A/E increased in the PES beat in four patients who experienced myocardial ischemia; whereas, other patients and the normals showed a decrease in the A/E in the PES beat even after RAP. These findings indicated that left ventricular dynamics coupled with left atrial contraction are quite different in myocardial ischemic and nonischemic situations, and that postextrasystolic potentiation may be a useful means of detecting the ventricular diastolic dysfunction.