Power Doppler-derived speckle tracking image of intraventricular flow in patients with anterior myocardial infarction: Correlation with left ventricular thrombosis

The abnormal spatial distribution of intraventricular flow is superior to c linical and two-dimensional (2-D) echocardiographic variables in predicting left ventricular thrombosis after myocardial infarction. Echocardiography was prospectively performed in 79 patients within 72 h after anterior wall myocardial infarction onset and repeated before discharge. The apical rotat ing flow pattern in color flow map was recognized as abnormal. By power Dop pler echocardiography, the moving blood could generate speckle tracking ima ges to delineate the intraventricular flow. A swirling flow pattern indicat ing the compartmentalization of left ventricular blood flow with some blood stagnant in the apical dyssynergic area was identified, The flow pattern s hown by the speckle tracking image was superior to the color-flow map in co rrelating with left ventricular thrombosis. It implicated that the more the detail in which we can describe the blood how pathway, the more informatio n we can realize. (C) 2000 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Bi ology.