Ventricular asynchrony of time-to-peak systolic velocity in structurally normal heart by tissue Doppler imaging.
BACKGROUND
Echocardiographic measurements of time-to-peak systolic velocities (Ts) are helpful for assessing the degree of cardiac asynchrony. We assessed the degree of ventricular asynchrony in structurally normal heart according to Ts by tissue Doppler imaging.


METHODS
We performed conventional echocardiography and tissue velocity imaging for 65 healthy adult volunteers to measure the Ts of 12 left ventricular segments in the mid and basal levels delay of Ts and standard deviation (SD) of Ts in all and basal segments. Six frequently used markers of dyssynchrony were measured and were also compared between men and women. Data are presented as median (25th and 75th percentile).


RESULTS
Septal-lateral and anteroseptal-posterior delays were 50 (20, 90) and 20 (0, 55) ms. The delay between the longest and the shortest Ts in basal and all segments were 100 (80, 120) and 110 (83, 128) ms, respectively. SD of Ts was 39 (24, 52) ms for basal and 41 (28, 51) ms for all segments. Overall, 76.9% of cases had at least one marker of dyssynchrony. Frequencies of dyssynchrony markers were almost significantly higher in women compared to men. The most frequently observed dyssynchrony marker was SD of Ts of all segments (70.8%) and the lowest was anteroseptal-posterior delay (21.5%).


CONCLUSIONS
Normal population almost had dyssynchrony by previously described markers and many of these markers were more frequent in women. Conducting more studies on normal population by other tissue Doppler modalities may give better description of cardiac synchronicity.
Sadeghian
Hakimeh
H
Echocardiography Department, Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Ahmadi
Farzaneh
F
Lotfi-Tokaldany
Masoumeh
M
Kazemisaeid
Ali
A
Fathollahi
Mahmood Sheikh
MS
Goodarzynejad
Hamidreza
H
D000328:Adult; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*