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.
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.
Lee
Souki
S
Department of Cardiology, Kagoshima City Hospital, Kagoshima, Japan.
Otsuji
Yutaka
Y
Minagoe
Shinichi
S
Hamasaki
Shuichi
S
Toyonaga
Koichi
K
Obata
Hachiro
H
Takumi
Takuro
T
Arimura
Hiroshi
H
Miyata
Masaaki
M
Biro
Sadatoshi
S
Toda
Hitoshi
H
Tei
Chuwa
C
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