Amplitudes, Durations, and Timings of Apically Directed Left Ventricular Myocardial Velocities: I. Their Normal Pattern and Coupling to Ventricular Filling and Ejection☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Study Subjects
Twenty healthy normal volunteers with no history of cardiac disease or any cardiovascular symptoms or signs were prospectively recruited for the study. All had normal sinus rhythm. None of the patients was taking any cardiovascular medications. All had normal two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiographic examinations with normal cardiac chamber size and ventricular and valvular functions. The mean ± SD age was 44 ± 16 years (range 25 to 72) years, and two of the volunteers were women.
Recording of Echocardiograms
The
Reproducibility of myocardial velocity measurements
The correlation coefficient for the independent measurements of myocardial velocity amplitudes by the same observer was 0.96 and by different observers was 0.95, and that for durations was 0.97 and 0.95, respectively. With the Bland-Altman method the mean difference between observations was <5% of the mean value of the observations for measurement of both amplitudes and durations.
Mitral and Aortic Flow
The baseline data of the timings and durations of the mitral and aortic flow velocity signals are summarized in
Discussion
Results of this study indicate that in individuals with no clinical or echocardiographic evidence of heart disease, (1) regional differences exist in the long-axis myocardial velocities and extent of shortenings and lengthenings among the four LV walls, (2) differences exist in the amount of early and late diastolic lengthening among the four walls, (3) myocardial velocity gradients exist along the LV long axis, the apex being fairly stationary, and (4) a close coupling of the myocardial
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Cited by (0)
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From the Sections of Cardiology, Jerry L. Pettis VA Medical Center and Loma Linda University School of Medicine.
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Reprint requests: Ramdas G. Pai, MD, FRCP(E), Cardiology (111C), Jerry L. Pettis VA Hospital, 11201 Benton St., Loma Linda, CA 92357.
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