Circulation Journal Official Journal of the Japanese Circulation Society http://www. j-circ.or.jp that these parameters do not necessarily correlate with invasively measured LV filling pressure in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 2 severely reduced LV systolic function, 3 and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (EF). 4 Editorial p 1104Reasons for inaccuracies with tissue Doppler-derived parameters could include angle dependency and myocardial tethering, levated left ventricular (LV) filling pressure results in shortness of breath, which is both a major symptom and a prognostic predictor for heart failure. Therefore, noninvasive estimation of LV filling pressure is considered a goal of routine echocardiography. Recent recommendations encourage using tissue Doppler-derived early-diastolic mitral annular velocity (e´) as a parameter of LV relaxation and the ratio of early-diastolic LV inflow velocity (E) to e´ (E/e´) to indicate LV filling pressure. Background: Speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE)-derived parameters may have better correlation with left ventricular (LV) relaxation and filling pressure than tissue Doppler-derived parameters. However, it has not been elucidated which parameter -strain or strain rate -and which direction of myocardial deformation -longitudinal or circumferential -is the most useful marker of LV relaxation and filling pressure.

Background: When left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP) increases, the mitral valve opens early and precedes tricuspid valve opening in early diastole. The authors hypothesized that a visually assessed time sequence of atrioventricular valve opening could become a new marker of elevated LVFP. The aim of this study was to test the diagnostic ability of a novel echocardiographic scoring system, the visually assessed time difference between mitral valve and tricuspid valve opening (VMT) score, in patients with heart failure.Methods: One hundred nineteen consecutive patients who underwent cardiac catheterization within 24 hours of echocardiographic examination were retrospectively analyzed as a derivation cohort. In addition, a prospective study was conducted to validate the diagnostic ability of the VMT score in 50 patients. Elevated LVFP was defined as mean pulmonary artery wedge pressure (PAWP) $ 15 mm Hg. The time sequence of atrioventricular valve opening was visually assessed and scored (0 = tricuspid valve first, 1 = simultaneous, 2 = mitral valve first). When the inferior vena cava was dilated, 1 point was added, and VMT score was ultimately graded as 0 to 3. Cardiac events were recorded for 1 year after echocardiography.Results: In the derivation cohort, PAWP was elevated with higher VMT scores (score 0, 10 6 5; score 1, 12 6 4; score 2, 22 6 8; score 3, 28 6 4 mm Hg; P < .001, analysis of variance). VMT score $ 2 predicted elevated PAWP with accuracy of 86% and showed incremental predictive value over clinical variables and guidelinerecommended diastolic function grading. These observations were confirmed in the prospective validation cohort. Importantly, VMT score $ 2 discriminated elevated PAWP with accuracy of 82% in 33 patients with monophasic left ventricular inflow in the derivation cohort. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that patients with VMT scores $ 2 were at higher risk for cardiac events than those with VMT scores # 1 (P < .001).Conclusions: VMT scoring could be a novel additive marker of elevated LVFP and might also be associated with adverse outcomes in patients with heart failure.

Whether and how left ventricular (LV) strain and strain rate correlate with wall stress is not known. Furthermore, it is not determined whether strain or strain rate is less dependent on the afterload. In 41 healthy young adults, LV global peak strain and systolic peak strain rate in the longitudinal direction (LS and LSR, respectively) and circumferential direction (CS and CSR, respectively) were measured layer-specifically using speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) before and during a handgrip exercise. Among all the points before and during the exercise, all the STE parameters significantly correlated linearly with wall stress (LS: r = -0.53, p < 0.01, LSR: r = -0.28, p < 0.05, CS in the inner layer: r = -0.72, p < 0.01, CSR in the inner layer: r = -0.47, p < 0.01). Strain more strongly correlated with wall stress than strain rate (r = -0.53 for LS vs. r = -0.28 for LSR, p < 0.05; r = -0.72 for CS vs. r = -0.47 for CSR in the inner layer, p < 0.05), whereas the interobserver variability was similar between strain and strain rate (longitudinal 6.2 vs. 5.2 %, inner circumferential 4.8 vs. 4.7 %, mid-circumferential 7.9 vs. 6.9 %, outer circumferential 10.4 vs. 9.7 %), indicating that the differences in correlation coefficients reflect those in afterload dependency. It was thus concluded that LV strain and strain rate linearly and inversely correlated with wall stress in the longitudinal and circumferential directions, and strain more strongly depended on afterload than did strain rate. Myocardial shortening should be evaluated based on the relationships between these parameters and wall stress.

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Aims Elevated left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP) is a powerful indicator of worsening clinical outcomes in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF); however, detection of elevated LVFP is often challenging. This study aimed to determine the association between the newly proposed echocardiographic LVFP parameter, visually assessed time difference between the mitral valve and tricuspid valve opening (VMT) score, and clinical outcomes of HFpEF. Methods and results We retrospectively investigated 310 well-differentiated HFpEF patients in stable conditions. VMT was scored from 0 to 3 using two-dimensional echocardiographic images, and VMT ≥2 was regarded as a sign of elevated LVFP. The primary endpoint was a composite of cardiac death or heart failure hospitalization during the 2 years after the echocardiographic examination. In all patients, Kaplan–Meier curves showed that VMT ≥2 (n = 54) was associated with worse outcomes than the VMT ≤1 group (n = 256) (P &lt; 0.001). Furthermore, VMT ≥2 was associated with worse outcomes when tested in 100 HFpEF patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) (P = 0.026). In the adjusted model, VMT ≥2 was independently associated with the primary outcome (hazard ratio 2.60, 95% confidence interval 1.46–4.61; P = 0.001). Additionally, VMT scoring provided an incremental prognostic value over clinically relevant variables and diastolic function grading (χ2 10.8–16.3, P = 0.035). Conclusions In patients with HFpEF, the VMT score was independently and incrementally associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Moreover, it could also predict clinical outcomes in HFpEF patients with AF.

Purpose: Pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) is an important hemodynamic parameter in patients with heart failure, especially when the pulmonary arterial pressure is lower due to reduced stroke volume. Several echocardiographic methods to estimate PVR have been proposed, but their applications in patients with organic left-sided heart diseases have been limited. The aim of the present study was to examine the usefulness of our new method to estimate PVR (PVR PR ) based on the continuous-wave Doppler velocity measurements of pulmonary regurgitation in these patients. Methods:In 43 patients who underwent right heart catheterization, PVR PR was calculated as the difference between the Doppler-derived early-and end-diastolic pulmonary artery (PA)-right ventricular (RV) pressure gradients divided by the cardiac output measured in the left ventricular outflow tract by echocardiography.

IS-e' well reflected LV longitudinal myocardial relaxation and LV diastolic function, and was found to be more useful in evaluating LV diastolic function than LW-e'.

Background: Left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction is often observed in