Does atrioventricular ring motion always distinguish constriction from restriction? A Doppler myocardial imaging study

Constrictive pericarditis and restrictive cardiomyopathy can be difficult t o differentiate on clinical examination, Cardiac ultrasonography is increas ingly being used as the noninvasive method of choice for confirming the spe cific morphologic and hemodynamic abnormalities associated with either cond ition. interrogation of atrioventricular valve plane motion by Doppler myoc ardial imaging (DMI) has been suggested as a valuable new approach that can help differentiate one from the other. We report the color DMI, pulsed DMI , and strain rate findings in 2 cases of constrictive pericarditis in which consideration of the annular motion pattern alone would not have allowed s uch differentiation.