Assessment of reflection pulse wave in patients with cardiomyopathy: evaluation of noninvasive measurement of wave intensity

Objective - We assessed the reflection pressure wave using noninvasive meas urement of wave intensity (WI) in patients with cardiomyopathy. Methods and results - Subjects included 8 patients with hypertrophic cardio myopathy (HCM group) and 10 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM group ). Twelve healthy subjects were used as a control group. By using a combine d Doppler and echo-tracking system, changes in vascular diameter (dD) and b lood flow velocity (dV) were recorded simultaneously at the common carotid artery and dD x dV was measured as WI. In the components of WI, the positiv e component of early systolic phase (FE) and the negative component followi ng FE (B) were significantly reduced in the DCM group. There was a signific ant positive correlation between FE and B in all 3 groups. The appearance t ime of B was significantly shorter in the HCM group and significantly longe r in the DCM group compared with the control group. Conclusions - It was suggested that the value of the reflection pressure wa ve was influenced by the left ventricular contractility, and that the effec t of the reflection pressure wave appeared earlier in patients with HCM and later in patients with DCM compared with the control subjects.