American Journal of Advanced Medical & Surgical Research

TISSUE DOPPLER IMAGING IN RHEUMATIC MITRAL VALVE DISEASE PATIENTS FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF LEFT VENTRICULAR FUNCTION

Mona S Jain*, Kamal H Sharma, Nikhil D Jadhav, Komal H Shah, Ashwati Konat

nandasinghai@rediffmail.com

Rheumatic mitral valve disease, Tissue doppler imaging, Echocardiography, strain imaging, Left ventricular function.

The aim of the study is to investigate whether the Tissue doppler imaging (TDI) technique is advantageous in evaluation of LV systolic function in patients with rheumatic mitral valve disease in comparison to Simpson’s method of conventional echocardiography. In this prospective, cross-sectional study, 60 age and sex matched individuals were enrolled into two groups (30 in each group) -healthy controls (Group 1) and the patients of rheumatic mitral valve disease (Group 2). In addition to the standard echocardiographic assessment methods, both the groups underwent the tissue Doppler evaluation, in order to assess the LV function. Student’s t-test was used to compare continuous variable whereas chi-square test was used for the categorical variables. Myocardial performance index (MPI) assessed by conventional echocardiography and tissue doppler method were significantly (<0.001) lower in group 1 (0.39 ± 0.03) as compared to group 2 (0.46 ± 0.02) subjects. Peak systolic myocardial velocity (13.73 ± 2.51 vs 7.8 ± 1.42), early diastolic (16.4 ± 2.99 vs 8.03 ± 1.47) and late diastolic myocardial velocities (11.17 ± 2.04 vs 7.56 ± 1.38) were significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2. The strain and strain rate of base lateral, mid and apical LV free wall, apical-, mid- and base septal were significantly (p<0.05) lower in group 2 as compared to group 1. Tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) can be useful in the detection of subclinical LV dysfunction in patients of rheumatic mitral valve disease. Myocardial strain offers an objective mean to quantify global and regional LV function and to improve the accuracy and reproducibility of conventional echocardiographic studies.