Regional left ventricular wall motion abnormalities in myocardial infarction and mitral annular descent velocities studied with pulsed tissue Doppler imaging.

We evaluated global left ventricular (LV) systolic function from mitral annular systolic motion velocities measured by pulsed tissue Doppler imaging in patients with previous myocardial infarction (MI) and LV regional wall motion abnormalities. The subject group consisted of 45 patients with wall asynergies, 3 with ischemic cardiomyopathy, 8 with dilated cardiomyopathy, and 15 healthy control subjects. The peak systolic descent velocity (Sw) and the time from the electrocardiographic Q wave to the peak of the systolic wave (Q-Sw) were measured at 6 mitral annular sites obtained from 2-dimensional apical long-axis, 4-chamber, and 2-chamber echocardiograms; these variables were compared with the LV ejection fraction (EF) calculated from the left ventriculogram. The mean Sw at the sites corresponding to the infarct regions was significantly lower and the mean Q-Sw was significantly longer in the MI groups than in the control group. The mean Sw and Q-Sw at all 6 sites in the ischemic and dilated cardiomyopathy groups were significantly lower and longer, respectively, than those of the control group. There were significant correlations between the EF and the means of the Sw and Q-Sw values at the sites corresponding to the infarct regions in the MI groups. In the ischemic and dilated cardiomyopathy groups, significant correlations existed between the EF and the means of the Sw and Q-Sw values at all 6 sites. Thus the parameters obtained from mitral annular systolic motion velocities with pulsed tissue Doppler imaging reflect LV asynergy corresponding to the infarct regions in patients with MI, and global LV systolic function may be evaluated with these parameters.