Can transesophageal pulse-wave tissue Doppler imaging be used to evaluate left ventricular function?
BACKGROUND
This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of transesophageal tissue Doppler echocardiography (TDE) in evaluation of the left ventricular functions. To this end, the data obtained by transoesophageal tissue Doppler echocardiography and by transthoracic tissue Doppler echocardiography were compared simultaneously.


METHODS
Nineteen consecutive patients (7 female and 12 male) underwent a clinically indicated study. In transthoracic (TTE) and transoesophageal (TEE) echocardiographic study, a Vingmed System Five Doppler echocardiographic unit (GE Vingmed) was used. For the assessment of the left ventricular function using transthoracic and transoesophageal TDE, the mitral annular peak systolic (S), early diastolic (E), late diastolic velocities (A), late to early velocity ratio (E/A), deceleration times (DT), left ventricular isovolumetric relaxation times (IVRT) were measured at the lateral, medial, anterior, and posterior corners at the mitral annulus by activating TDE mode in the transthoracic and transoesophageal apical four- and two-chamber view. Bland-Altman plots were used to compare the two measurement techniques. The differences between the groups were assessed by Mann-Whitney U test. All the data were expressed as mean +/- SD. A P-value of <0.05 was considered significant.


RESULTS
There were no significant differences between two techniques in terms of blood pressure and heart rate. Two techniques were compared for the transthoracic and transoesophageal TDE parameters. Bland-Altman analysis showed comparable values for E, A, E/A, S, and mE/E, although the measurements of DT and IVRT were different.


CONCLUSIONS
PW tissue Doppler echocardiographic approach during TEE may be suitable for assessment of the left ventricular function.
Sevimli
Serdar
S
Department of Cardiology, Medical School Hospital, Ataturk University, 25050 Erzurum, Turkey. drserdarsevimli@hotmail.com
Arslan
Sakir
S
Gundogdu
Fuat
F
Aksakal
Enbiya
E
Buyukkaya
Eyup
E
Tas
Hakan
H
Islamoglu
Yahya
Y
Gurlertop
H Yekta
HY
Erol
Mustafa Kemal
MK
Acikel
Mahmut
M
Senocak
Huseyin
H
Karakelleoglu
Sule
S
Alp
Necip
N
D000328:Adult; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology