NEW MODALITIES OF REGIONAL AND GLOBAL LEFT-VENTRICULAR FUNCTION-ANALYSIS - STATE-OF-THE-ART

Study of left ventricular (LV) regional and global function represents a main point of the cardiologic evaluation. This article presents an overview of the state of the art in quantitative analysis of ventricul ar wall motion and describes the different techniques available in cli nical settings; we also present the personal experience of the authors in comparing conventional 2-dimensional (2D) echocardiography with ot her recently developed, more sophisticated techniques. Conventional 2D echocardiography mainly depends on the operator's ability. Moreover, the physiologic regional pattern of myocardial wall motion in differen t segments of left ventricle is still not completely known as well as the heart's rotational and translational movements. Qualitative and qu antitative transesophageal echocardiography allows a better and more a ccurate evaluation of regional wall motion, and improves the on-line b order detection feasibility even in patients with poor transthoracic e chocardiographic window. The automated system for on-line endocardial border detection, color kinesis, and the power Doppler are, at the mom ent promising techniques. Using magnetic resonance imaging as a ''gold standard'' for the study of global and regional left ventricular func tion, the investigators describe personal experiences with tissue Dopp ler imaging and a new computerized system for tissue Doppler images po stprocessing analysis. (C) 1998 by Excerpta Medico, Inc.