Clinical InvestigationsStudies of Right Ventricular and Left Atrial StrainComparison between Nondedicated and Novel Dedicated Tracking Tool for Right Ventricular and Left Atrial Strain
Section snippets
Study Population
For our study, we retrospectively selected 200 echocardiographic recordings performed in the echocardiography laboratory of the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium. Echocardiographic recordings were considered appropriate for the study when the following criteria were met: (1) presence of images suitable for LA and RV strain measurements; (2) image quality acceptable for speckle-tracking; (3) sinus rhythm with stable electrocardiogram. The ethical commission of the hospital has waived the
Patient Characteristics
We included 200 subjects (138 male patients, 69%) with normal echocardiographic findings (n = 75, 38%) as well as a wide range of cardiac pathology such as myocardial ischemia (n = 65, 33%), dilated cardiomyopathy (n = 40, 20%), and hypertrophic hearts (n = 20, 10%). The ejection fraction in the cohort ranged from 12% to 75%. Patient characteristics and standard echocardiographic measurements of the study group are summarized in Table 1.
Agreement between LV- and Dedicated RV-Tracking Software
Right ventricular strain measurements could be obtained in
Discussion
The growing use of both RV and LA strain measurements in clinical practice has led to the development of tracking tools, tailored to the myocardial shape and motion pattern of the respective chambers. Our study aimed at engaging two aspects: whether the LV and dedicated LA- or RV-tracking software provide interchangeable results and whether the use of dedicated RV- and LA-tracking tools reduces the measurement variability.
Conclusion
Our results suggest that the choice of software used to obtain RV strain values has a minor impact on measurement results. Values and measurement variability did not differ in most of the cases. The direct provision of a more robust RV FWS, easier handling, and correct segmental annotation might be an advantage of the dedicated RV software. For LA strain measurements, the use of dedicated LA tracking provided similar values at a significantly lower variability, suggesting a benefit for clinical
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Value of a Right Ventricular–Specific Longitudinal Systolic Strain Software Package in Risk Prediction in Patients With Known or Suspected Pulmonary Hypertension
2023, Journal of the American Society of EchocardiographyLeft Atrial Structural and Functional Response in Kidney Transplant Recipients Treated With Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Therapy and Early Tacrolimus Withdrawal
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Conflicts of Interest: None.
JUV is supported by a personal research mandate of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), grant no. 183292N. JD is supported by a postdoctoral research mandate of the FWO, grant no. 12ZZN22N.