title: Echocardiographic assessments of left atrial strain and volume in healthy patients and patients with mitral valvular heart disease by tissue Doppler imaging and 3-dimensional echocardiography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of the current study was to assess left atrial (LA) physiology in relation to associations between LA volume change and regional tissue velocities and strains, and to extend this information to patients with mitral stenosis (MS) or mitral regurgitation (MR).
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-two healthy persons, 22 patients with moderate-to-severe MS, and 22 patients with moderate-to-severe MR were studied. Tissue velocities, strains, and time-volume curves of the LA were acquired using tissue Doppler imaging and 3-dimensional echocardiography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In healthy controls, the maximal LA volume was negatively correlated with the posterior wall longitudinal systolic strain (r=-0.45, p=0.03). The time-to-maximal LA volume was positively correlated with the time-to-posterior wall longitudinal peak strain (r=0.46, p=0.03) and the time-to-circumferential peak strain (r=0.59, p=0.004). The LA active emptying fraction (LAactEF) was positively correlated with the posterior wall longitudinal peak systolic and late diastolic tissue velocities. In patients with MS, the maximal LA volume was negatively correlated with the posterior wall radial peak systolic velocity and the longitudinal late diastolic velocity. In patients with MS, the LAactEF had an additional positive correlation with the anterior wall longitudinal and circumferential systolic velocities, whereas the patients with MR had an additional positive correlation between the LAactEF and the lateral wall longitudinal peak strain as compared with the healthy cantrols.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LA longitudinal and circumferential deformations are more related than radial deformation to determining LA volume and function. The LA of patients with MS revealed a greater pathologic physiology than those of patients with MR.
authors: Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Gachon University of Medicine and Science, Gil Medical Center, Incheon, Korea.
authors: Mi-Seung
authors: MS
authors: Shin
authors: Bong Roung
authors: BR
authors: Kim
authors: Kyu Jin
authors: KJ
authors: Oh
authors: Jeong Min
authors: JM
authors: Bong
authors: Wook-Jin
authors: WJ
authors: Chung
authors: Woong Chol
authors: WC
authors: Kang
authors: Seung Hwan
authors: SH
authors: Han
authors: Chan Il
authors: CI
authors: Moon
authors: Tae Hoon
authors: TH
authors: Ahn
authors: In Suck
authors: IS
authors: Choi
authors: Eak Kyun
authors: EK
authors: Shin