Feasibility of tissue-tracking mitral annular displacement in single four-chamber view as a simple index of left ventricular longitudinal deformation.

BACKGROUND

Left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LVGLS) has prognostic value for adverse cardiac events. Application of speckle-tracking technology to mitral annulus provides easy assessment of tissue-tracking mitral annular displacement (TMAD) in apical four-chamber view. The study aimed to examine whether TMAD can be used as a simple index of LV longitudinal deformation in patients with and without preserved ejection fraction (EF).

METHODS

The study population consisted of 95 consecutive subjects. GLS was assessed from three apical views. TMAD was evaluated as the base-to-apex displacement of septal (TMADsep), lateral (TMADlat), and mid-point of annular line (TMADmid) in apical 4-chamber view. The percentage of TMADmid to LV length from the mid-point of mitral annuls to the apex at end-diastole (%TMADmid) was calculated. We compared each TMAD parameter with GLS by linear regression analysis, and analyzed each TMAD parameter by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to detect impaired LV longitudinal deformation (|GLS|< 15.0%).

RESULTS

There were good correlations between each TMAD parameter and GLS (TMADsep: r = 0.59, p < 0.01. TMADlat: r = 0.65, p < 0.01. TMADmid: r = 0.68, p < 0.01. %TMADmid: r = 0.75, p < 0.01). According to ROC curve, %TMADmid < 10.5% was the best cut-off value in determining impaired LV longitudinal deformation (|GLS|≤ 15.0%) with a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 93%. The area under the curve (AUC) of %TMADmid was 0.98 (95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.93-0.99).

CONCLUSIONS

TMAD using speckle-tracking echocardiography quickly estimated from single apical four-chamber view can be used as a simple index for detection of impaired LV longitudinal deformation in patients with and without preserved EF.