Copyright © 2004, The European Society of Cardiology
Age-related intramyocardial patterns in healthy subjects evaluated with Doppler tissue imaging
aLaboratorio de Ecocardiografía, Department of Cardiology, Hospital Gregorio Marañón, C/Doctor Esquerdo, 46, 28007 Madrid, Spain
bETSIT-Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
cPhysics Department, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain
dExperimental Medicine, Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Spain
Received 29 January 2004; received in revised form 24 May 2004; accepted after revision 9 August 2004.
* Presented in part at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, November 2002, Chicago, Illinois.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 91 586 82 83; fax: +34 91 586 67 27. E-mail addresses: eperezdavid{at}arrakis.es (E. Perez-David), magfeco{at}primus.es (M.A. Garcia-Fernandez), mledesma{at}die.upm.es (M.J. Ledesma), nmalpica{at}die.upm.es (N. Malpica), tlf{at}eresmas.com (T.L. Fernandez), desco{at}mce.hggm.es (M. Desco).
1 Tel.: +34 91 586 82 83; fax: +34 91 586 67 27.
2 Tel.: +34 91 586 66 78.
 |
Abstract |
|---|
Background The aim of this study is to analyse spatial distribution of myocardial velocities (MV) and myocardial velocity gradient (MVG) with color M-mode Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) and to analyse the influence of age in such parameters.
Methods and results A prospective study including 66 healthy volunteers was carried out with color M-mode DTI. Postprocessing of images was performed using proprietary software allowing the division of the myocardial wall into subendocardium, mesocardium and subepicardium. MV corresponding to the three layers and MVG time curves were obtained and systolic, early diastolic and late diastolic peak values were identified. MV were highest in subendocardium in systole, protodiastole and telediastole compared to external layers. Protodiastolic peak MV decreased in all layers with age, but with a higher impact in the subendocardium (r=0.72, b=0.136 (IC 95% 0.107–0.164), p=0.0005). Older age resulted in larger telediastolic peak MV, without significant differences among layers. Linear correlation between protodiastolic peak mitral flow and peak protodiastolic velocity was higher in endocardium than in other layers (r=0.79, p=0.0005).
Conclusions Color M-mode DTI multilayer analysis showed that endocardium is more susceptible to age-related changes involving diastolic function. This dependency on age should be considered when assessing MV in other clinical settings.
Keywords: Doppler tissue imaging (DTI); Echocardiography; Aging