Prognostic value of intra-left ventricular electromechanical asynchrony in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to assess the indexes of myocardial activation delay, using Doppler myocardial imaging (DMI), as potential predictors of cardiac events in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The distribution and magnitude of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy are not uniform in patients with HCM, which results in heterogeneity of regional LV systolic function.


RESULTS
The study population included 123 HCM patients (39.4+/-5.9 years) and 123 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects, followed up for 48.4+/-8.8 months. By use of pulsed DMI, the following regional parameters were evaluated in six different basal myocardial segments: myocardial peak velocities and systolic time-intervals; myocardial intraventricular (intra-V-Del) and interventricular (inter-V-Del) systolic delays. DMI analysis in HCM showed lower myocardial systolic and early-diastolic peak velocities of all the segments. As for time intervals, HCM showed significant inter- and intra-V delays (P<0.0001), whereas homogeneous systolic activation of the ventricular walls was assessed in controls. During the follow-up, 16 cardiac deaths (12 sudden deaths) were observed in HCM patients. InHCM, DMI intra-V-Del was the most powerful independent predictor of sudden cardiac death (P<0.0001). In particular, an intra-V-Del>45 ms is identified with high sensitivity and specificity in HCM patients at higher risk of ventricular tachycardia and sudden cardiac death (test accuracy: 88.8%).


CONCLUSIONS
In HCM patients, DMI indexes of intra-V-Del may provide additional information for selecting subgroups of HCM patients at increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death at follow-up. Accordingly, such patients may be more actively identified for early intensive treatment and survey.
D'Andrea
Antonello
A
Department of Cardiology, Second University of Naples, Monaldi Hospital, Via G. Martucci 35, 80121 Naples, Italy. adandrea@napoli.com
Caso
Pio
P
Severino
Sergio
S
Cuomo
Sergio
S
Capozzi
Giovanbattista
G
Calabrò
Paolo
P
Cice
Gennaro
G
Ascione
Luigi
L
Scherillo
Marino
M
Calabrò
Raffaele
R
D000328:Adult; D002312:Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology; D018619:Echocardiography, Doppler, Pulsed / Q000592:standards; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011379:Prognosis; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology