Improved regional and global diastolic performance in patients with coronary artery disease after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

To investigate the improvement of left ventricular (LV) function after successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), we studied resting ejection fraction, regional ejection fraction, filling fraction as an index of early diastolic performance, and regional filling fraction in 22 patients with single-vessel coronary artery disease and technically adequate LV angiograms before and 6 months after successful PTCA without restenosis. Before PTCA, filling fraction was significantly less in patients with coronary artery disease than in the control group, although there was no significant difference in ejection fraction. Filling fraction improved significantly after PTCA. Regional filling fraction increased significantly in jeopardizing myocardium, but regional filling fraction in nonjeopardized myocardium did not change significantly. Ejection fraction and regional ejection fraction did not change significantly after PTCA. Our results indicate that the improvement of regional diastolic performance in jeopardized myocardium may contribute to the improvement of global diastolic performance after successful PTCA.