title: Challenges for 'diastology': contributions from Japanese researchers.
abstract: Diastology is a study to treat diastole of the heart. Transmitral flow and pulmonary venous flow velocities recorded by pulsed Doppler echocardiography provide more important information about left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction [left atrial (LA)-LV coupling] than cardiac catheterization in clinical practice; however, these waveforms are influenced by loading conditions, particularly preload. The early diastolic mitral annular and LV wall motion indices measured by tissue Doppler echocardiography can evaluate LV relaxation abnormality and filling pressure by being relatively preload independent. In addition, the role of concomitant systolic longitudinal dysfunction is well characterized in asymptomatic patients and in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction. Two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography is an angle-independent method, and has the potential to evaluate the contraction and relaxation abnormalities in the longitudinal, circumferential, and radial directions of the LV myocardium as well as LV torsion/untwisting and, moreover, deformation of the LA myocardium and large arterial wall. As a result, this new technique can facilitate the early detection of impaired LA-LV-arterial coupling in patients before occurrence of overt heart failure symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Section, Higashi Tokushima Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Tokushima, Japan. oki@higasitokusima.hosp.go.jp.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oki
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Section, Higashi Tokushima Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Tokushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miyoshi
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Section, Higashi Tokushima Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Tokushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oishi
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Section, Higashi Tokushima Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Tokushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mizuguchi
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Section, Higashi Tokushima Medical Center, National Hospital Organization, Tokushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Arata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iuchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Tokushima University Hospital, Tokushima, Japan.
authors.forename: Hirotsugu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.affiliation: Division of Functional Diagnostics, Department of Health Sciences, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakatani
mesh_terms: D003971:Diastole; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D018619:Echocardiography, Doppler, Pulsed; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left
keywords: 2-D speckle tracking echocardiography; Diastology; Flow velocity Doppler echocardiography; Japanese researchers; M-mode echocardiography; Tissue Doppler echocardiography