Lervik Lars Christian Naterstad, Brekke Birger, Aase Svein Arne, Lønnebakken Mai Tone, Stensvåg Dordi, Amundsen Brage H, Torp Hans, Støylen Asbjorn
Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Ultrasound Med Biol. 2017 Sep;43(9):1919-1929. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2017.05.016. Epub 2017 Jun 23.
Strain rate imaging by tissue Doppler (TDI) is vulnerable to stationary reverberations and noise (clutter). Anatomic Doppler spectrum (ADS) presents retrospective spectral Doppler from ultra-high frame rate imaging (UFR-TDI) data for a region of interest, that is, ventricular wall or segment, at one time instance. This enables spectral assessment of strain rate (SR) without the influence of clutter. In this study, we assessed SR with ADS and conventional TDI in 20 patients with a recent myocardial infarction and 10 healthy volunteers. ADS-based SR correlated with fraction of scarred myocardium of the left ventricle (r = 0.68, p < 0.001), whereas SR by conventional TDI did not (r = 0.23, p = 0.30). ADS identified scarred myocardium and ADS Visual was the only method that differentiated transmural from non-transmural distribution of myocardial scar on a segmental level (p = 0.002). Finally, analysis of SR by ADS was feasible in a larger number of segments compared with SR by conventional TDI (p < 0.001).
