[Echocardiography and biventricular resynchronisation].
Biventricular resynchronisation has been recently shown to be an effective therapeutic option in patients with refractory dilated cardiomyopathy. Based on the finding of ventricular asynchrony, the aim of the method is to restore uniform contraction of the ventricular walls. However, the initial electrocardiographic criteria for selection of patients were only associated with a 70% rate of response. Consequently, it became necessary to refocus this method in patients with true ventricular asynchrony. Echocardiography is one of the non-invasive techniques which provides morphological and functional analysis of the myocardium with a high degree of accessibility. The multiplication of tools for echocardiographic quantification has been very valuable from a theoretical point of view for assessing ventricular asynchrony. In practice, techniques such as Doppler tissue imaging are being validated, but already offer the possibility of a multi-directional approach to this pathology. The diagnosis of asynchrony is based on a range of echocardiographic findings which not only improve the selection of patients but also optimise the programming of multisite stimulation.
Lafitte
S
S
Service des Echocardiographies, Hôpital Cardiologique, CHU Bordeaux.
Serri
K
K
Réant
P
P
Lafitte
M
M
Reuter
S
S
Garrigue
S
S
Bordachar
P
P
Roudaut
R
R
D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial / Q000379:methods*; D002311:Cardiomyopathy, Dilated / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy*; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D006801:Humans