Real-time strain rate echocardiographic imaging: Temporal and spatial analysis of postsystolic compression in acutely ischemic myocardium

Postsystolic compression (PSC) is a sensitive indicator of regional left ve ntricular ischemic diastolic dysfunction, Quantitative assessment of compre ssion patterns by strain rate imaging could determine the presence and spat ial extent of PSC for the detection and analysis of acute ischemic diastoli c dysfunction. With the use of a segmental left ventricular model, we evalu ated time to compression/expansion crossover (T-CEC) in standard apical vie ws. Data at baseline and after acute left anterior descending coronary arte ry occlusion were collected from 18 open-chest pigs. We found significant m ean prolongation of T-CEC, ranging from 43.9 +/- 48.6 Ins to 110.8 +/- 73.8 ms, in all apical segments and in 2 midventricular (anterior and anterosep tal) segments, analysis of variance demonstrated that the prolonged T-CEC i s spatially consistent with perfusion defect, The temporal and spatial anal ysis of T-CEC with the use of stain rate imaging is a new noninvasive techn ique for identification and topographic quantitation of ischemic diastolic dysfunction expressed bp PSC.