title: A comparison between brachial and echocardiographic systolic time intervals.
abstract: Systolic time interval (STI) is an established noninvasive technique for the assessment of cardiac function. Brachial STIs can be automatically determined by an ankle-brachial index (ABI)-form device. The aims of this study are to evaluate whether the STIs measured from ABI-form device can represent those measured from echocardiography and to compare the diagnostic values of brachial and echocardiographic STIs in the prediction of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <50%. A total of 849 patients were included in the study. Brachial pre-ejection period (bPEP) and brachial ejection time (bET) were measured using an ABI-form device and pre-ejection period (PEP) and ejection time (ET) were measured from echocardiography. Agreement was assessed by correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman plot. Brachial STIs had a significant correlation with echocardiographic STIs (r = 0.644, P<0.001 for bPEP and PEP; r  = 0.850, P<0.001 for bET and ET; r = 0.708, P<0.001 for bPEP/bET and PEP/ET). The disagreement between brachial and echocardiographic STIs (brachial STIs minus echocardiographic STIs) was 28.55 ms for bPEP and PEP, -4.15 ms for bET and ET and -0.11 for bPEP/bET and PEP/ET. The areas under the curve for bPEP/bET and PEP/ET in the prediction of LVEF <50% were 0.771 and 0.765, respectively. Brachial STIs were good alternatives to STIs obtained from echocardiography and also helpful in prediction of LVEF <50%. Brachial STIs automatically obtained from an ABI-form device may be helpful for evaluation of left ventricular systolic dysfunction.
authors: Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors: Ho-Ming
authors: HM
authors: Su
authors: Tsung-Hsien
authors: TH
authors: Lin
authors: Po-Chao
authors: PC
authors: Hsu
authors: Chun-Yuan
authors: CY
authors: Chu
authors: Wen-Hsien
authors: WH
authors: Lee
authors: Szu-Chia
authors: SC
authors: Chen
authors: Chee-Siong
authors: CS
authors: Lee
authors: Wen-Chol
authors: WC
authors: Voon
authors: Wen-Ter
authors: WT
authors: Lai
authors: Sheng-Hsiung
authors: SH
authors: Sheu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D055109:Ankle Brachial Index; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013318:Stroke Volume; D013599:Systole / Q000502:physiology*; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology