title: Correlation between distal left anterior descending artery flow velocity by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography and corrected TIMI frame count before mechanical reperfusion in patients with anterior acute myocardial infarction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study was designed to determine the utility of transthoracic Doppler echocardiography (TTDE) in evaluating angiographic Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) frame count as a quantitative index of coronary reperfusion in patients with anterior acute myocardial infarction (AMI) before mechanical reperfusion.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Color and pulsed TTDE was performed to evaluate distal left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) reperfusion in 56 consecutive patients with a first anterior AMI before coronary intervention, and these findings were compared with the corrected TIMI frame count (cTFC) by subsequent angiography. Twenty-four of the 56 patients had LAD reperfusion (TIMI 2 or 3) by angiography. Visual antegrade distal LAD flow by color TTDE was detected in 21 of these 24 patients. In the 21 patients, diastolic peak velocity of the distal LAD flow by pulsed TTDE showed a significant correlation with cTFC by angiography (r = -0.74, p < 0.001). The diagnosis of high risk with angiographic cTFC >40 by distal LAD peak velocity <21 cm/s using TTDE had a sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 82%, 93%, and 91%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  TTDE enables noninvasive and quantitative evaluation of distal LAD reperfusion in patients with anterior AMI in the acute phase before mechanical reperfusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Kagoshima City Hospital, Kagoshima, Japan.
authors.forename: Souki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Otsuji
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Minagoe
authors.forename: Shuichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hamasaki
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Toyonaga
authors.forename: Hachiro
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Obata
authors.forename: Takuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takumi
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Arimura
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miyata
authors.forename: Sadatoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biro
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toda
authors.forename: Chuwa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tei
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015425:Myocardial Reperfusion / Q000379:methods