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European Journal of Echocardiography Advance Access published online on January 27, 2009
European Journal of Echocardiography, doi:10.1093/ejechocard/jen332
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Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2009. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Speckle tracking for left ventricle performance in young athletes with bicuspid aortic valve and mild aortic regurgitation

Laura Stefani1,*, Alessio De Luca1, Nicola Maffulli2, Roberto Mercuri1, Gabriele Innocenti1, Irina Suliman1, Loira Toncelli1, Maria Concetta Vono1, Brunello Cappelli1, Stefano Pedri3, Gianni Pedrizzetti4 and Giorgio Galanti1

1 Non-invasive Cardiac Laboratory, Department of Sports Medicine Centre, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
2 Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, Keele University School of Medicine, Stoke-on-Trent, UK
3 ESAOTE, Florence, Italy
4 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

Received 28 August 2008; accepted after revision 21 December 2008.

* Corresponding author. Tel: +39 0329 420 4277; fax: +39 055 7949375. E-mail address: laura.stefani{at}unifi.it


  Abstract

Aims: Longitudinal peak systolic strain (LPSS) quantifies regional and global heart function. Few data are available on left ventricle (LV) performance in young athletes with bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), where a pattern of mild aortic insufficiency is relatively frequent, and the ejection fraction (EF) is often normal for a long time. We report the measurement of LV strain in young BAV athletes.

Methods and results: Three groups (20 athletes with BAV, 20 healthy athletes, and 20 sedentary healthy subjects, all aged 25 ± 3 years) underwent standard echo examination to evaluate LPSS at the basal and medium-apical segments of the lateral wall (LW) and interventricular septum (IVS) of the LV. LPSS was within the normal range; however, in BAV athletes, the LPSS of the basal segments tended to be lower (S%IVSbasal, –17.7 ± 2.7; S%LWbasal, –14.2 ± 2.2; S%IVSmed-apic, –21 ± 3.5; S%LWmed-apic, –18.8 ± 4.2), producing a gradient from basal to apical regions. The EF was normal in all subjects.

Conclusion: Young trained BAV athletes have normal LV performance. Nevertheless, these athletes tend to have lower strain than healthy subjects in the LV basal segments. The clinical implications of this finding are uncertain and require further investigation.

Keywords: BAV; Athletes; Strain


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