Value of Pulsed Tissue Doppler Imaging in Predicting the Presence of Significant Coronary Artery Insufficiency

Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a paramount cause of death. Global and regional left ventricular (LV) systolic function is an important non-invasive marker of CAD. We can use tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) to measure the low velocities generated by myocardium which are: S'-wave, E'-wave, and A'-wave. We aimed to examine the value of the S'-wave dispersion of TDI across mitral valve annular velocities to predict angiographically significant coronary artery obstruction. Patients and Methods: We included 100 patients with symptoms suggesting CAD. All patients had undergone full history taken and clinical examination;ECG, echocardiographic with assessment of LV function, and Doppler derived mitral valve velocities;TDI with measuring of S'-wave and coronary angiography. Lesions with ≥70% or more stenosis in major epicardial artery or ≥50% stenosis in the left main coronary artery were considered significant. Patients were classified into two groups according to the presence or absence of significant coronary stenosis. Results: Clinical and conventional echocardiographic and Tissue Doppler measures were comparable between the two groups;there was statisticallysignificant difference between Group I and Group II (P value;patients with significant coronary arteries lesions have higher S' wave dispersion as compared with patients with normal or mild significant coronary lesions. Conclusion: S'-wave dispersion may consider a good predictor of angiographically significant coronary artery disease.

Tissue Doppler Study before and after PCI in Patients with Chronic Stable Angina and Apparent Normal Ventricular Function for Evaluation of Myocardial Function

Background: This study aimed to determine the impact of the percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on myocardial function assessed by tissue Doppler echocardiography. Methods: Conventional two-dimensional echocardiography and Myocardial tissue peak velocities were recorded at the lateral, ant.septal, post.septal, posterior, ant. and inferior angles of the mitral annulus as well as at the lateral tricuspid annulus by pulsed-wave tissue Doppler echocardiography before PCI, as well as 1 day and 6 weeks after intervention. Results: Fifty consecutive patients with chronic stable angina and preserved systolic left ventricular function (mean age, 58.3 ± 6.594 years;32 men) undergoing PCI were studied. Conventional echocardiographic revealed no statistically significant difference between pre- and post-PCI (1 day after PCI and 6 weeks after PCI) as regarding trans-mitral and trans-tricuspid flow velocities except as regarding LVEDD, LVESD and LVEF which showed a significant improvement post-PCI. Compared with pre-interventional values, systolic peak velocity and early diastolic velocities improved at all sites (P ≤ 0.05 for each). The most pronounced improvement occurred in the septal area. Similarly, late diastolic velocities improved at all sites (P ≤ 0.05 for each) except at post Wall A’. Also, there was a significant improvement of E’DT & E’/A’ ratio after PCI (P value is significant <0.05 for each) but there was insignificant difference between pre & post PCI for E/E’ (P-value = 0.154). There was a significant improvement in tissue Doppler measures of early, late diastolic function and E’/A’ at the lateral tricuspid annulus after PCI compared with baseline values (P value is significant <0.05) but there was an insignificant change in tissue Doppler measures at the lateral tricuspid annulus of E’DT & E/E’ after PCI (repeated measures ANOVA P-value is >0.05 for each). There were significant reductions in IVRT, IVCT & MPI after PCI (P value is significant <0.05 for each) but there was insignificant change in ET after PCI (P-value = 0.09) at the septal angle of the mitral annulus and the lateral angle of the tricuspid annulus. Conclusions: Tissue Doppler parameters of diastolic and systolic function improve early after successful PCI, and this effect persists to 6 weeks after the intervention that emphasizes its value in the improvement of regional and global LV functions and myocardial contractility.