Homeostatic Left Heart integration and disintegration links atrio-ventricular covariation’s dyshomeostasis in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Abstract

Left ventricle and left atrium are and have been practically always analyzed separately in common clinically and non-clinically oriented cardiovascular investigations. Both classic and speckle tracking echocardiographic data contributed to the knowledge about deformational impairments occurring in systo-diastolic differences. Recently new trajectory based approaches allowed a greater awareness about the entire left ventricle or left atrium revolution and on their deficiencies that take place in presence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. However, surprisingly, the concomitant function of the two left heart chambers has not been analyzed for their geometrical/mechanical relationship. For the first time we study here, by acquiring left ventricle and left atrial geometries on the same heartbeat, the trajectory attributes of the entire left heart treated as a whole shape and the shape covariation of its two subunits. We contrasted healthy subjects with patients affected by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. We found impaired left heart trajectory mainly in terms of orientation and size. More importantly, we found profound differences in the direction of morphological covariation of left ventricle and left atrium. These findings open to new perspectives in pathophysiological evaluation of different diseases by allowing the appreciation of concomitant functioning of both left heart whole geometry and of its two chambers.

Impact of transition to a subterranean lifestyle on morphological disparity and integration in talpid moles (Mammalia, Talpidae)

“…This aspect is very important as it may reveal whether a common pattern of shape changes within modules exists between clades. In fact, groups may show similar integration coefficients but have different integration patterns [65, 66]. In order to investigate this issue, we performed separate major axis (MA) analyses on the different clades shapes on the space identified by the first pair of PLS axes [65, 66].…”

“…In fact, groups may show similar integration coefficients but have different integration patterns [65, 66]. In order to investigate this issue, we performed separate major axis (MA) analyses on the different clades shapes on the space identified by the first pair of PLS axes [65, 66]. MA is particularly suitable here because of its ‘symmetry,’ i.e., residuals are computed orthogonally to the line of best fit and this is coherent with PLS aims.…”

“…MA is particularly suitable here because of its ‘symmetry,’ i.e., residuals are computed orthogonally to the line of best fit and this is coherent with PLS aims. It does not require the classic assumption of dependence-independence relationship [65]. MA slopes were then compared through pairwise ANOVA, using lifestyle categories as groups.…”

Current Options for Visualization of Local Deformation in Modern Shape Analysis Applied to Paleobiological Case Studies

“…v y already encodes SD magnitudes. This procedure rotates v within the target according to R encoded in F. SD possesses an important deformational and mechanical meaning when computed on deformed shapes that are the result of specific forces such as in the left ventricle contraction (Evangelista et al, 2015;Gabriele et al, 2016;Piras et al, 2017;Varano et al, 2018). λ i = 1 indicates no deformation, λ i > 1 indicates a deformation that produces an expansion (=tensile SD) along the direction of the corresponding SD, while λ i < 1 indicates a deformation that produces a compression (=compressive SD).…”

Local and global energies for shape analysis in medical imaging

“…The use of only two individuals here is purely didactic thus without clinical statistical meaning and exclusively aimed at showing the profound implications of the body energy density conservation instead of total bending energy. These data come from the same research project partially published in previous studies, and have been collected by means of 3D‐STE (PST25SX Artida, Toshiba Medical Systems Corp., Tokyo, Japan). The whole LV geometry is reconstructed by starting from a set of six homologous landmarks, manually detected by the operator for each subject under study.…”