Assessment of regional longitudinal myocardial strain rate derived from Doppler myocardial imaging indexes in normal and infarcted myocardium

Myocardial deformation properties may be characterized by regional strain r ates (SRs) calculated from Doppler myocardial velocity data. In 10 control subjects and 12 patients with established transmural infarcts, longitudinal median segmental SR, strain and myocardial velocity were analyzed and comp ared with the corresponding wall motion score. All segments in control subj ects and normal segments in infarct patients showed no significant differen ce in either systolic or diastolic SR (systolic: -1.27 +/- 0.39 s(-1) versu s -1.23 +/- 0.24 s(-1), not significant [NS]; and isovolumic relaxation [IV R]: 1.23 +/- 0.38 S-1 versus 1.95 +/- 0.62 S-1, NS; respectively) and strai n (-0.21 +/- 0.06 versus -0.19 +/- 0.06, NS). In infarcted segments, peak s ystolic SR, systolic strain, and early diastolic SR showed the most pronoun ced reduction (hypokinetic and akinetic) or even inversion (dyskinetic segm ents: 0.10 +/- 0.26 s(-1), 0.00 +/- 0.03, and -1.78 +/- 0.67 s(-1), respect ively; P < .001). In this study, new myocardial deformation Indexes were sh own to quantitatively describe the function of normal and chronically infar cted regions.