Background: Early-diastolic left ventricular (LV) longitudinal expansion is delayed with diastolic dysfunction. We hypothesized that, in patients with heart failure (HF), regardless of LV ejection fraction (EF), there is diastolic temporal nonuniformity with a delay of longitudinal relative to circumferential expansion.
Methods and results: Echocardiography was performed in 143 HF patients-50 with preserved EF (HFpEF) and 93 with reduced EF (HFrEF)-as well as 31 normal control subjects. The delay of early-diastolic mitral annular velocity from the mitral Doppler E (TE-e') was measured as a parameter of the longitudinal expansion delay. The delay of the longitudinal early-diastolic global strain rate (SRE) relative to circumferential SRE (DelayC-L) was calculated as a parameter of temporal nonuniformity. Intra-LV pressure difference (IVPD) was estimated with the use of color M-mode Doppler data as a parameter of LV diastolic suction. Although normal control subjects had symmetric LV expansion in early diastole, TE-e' and DelayC-L were significantly prolonged in HF regardless of EF (P < .01 vs control for all). Multivariate analysis revealed that DelayC-L was the independent determinant of IVPD among the parameters of LV geometry and contraction (β = -0.21; P < .05).
Conclusion: An abnormal temporal nonuniformity of early-diastolic expansion is present in HF regardless of EF, which was associated with reduced LV suction.
Keywords: Echocardiography; Heart failure; Left ventricular diastolic function.
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