Department of artifact : Normal “ wall motion defect ” in echocardiography

(This post is about some basics in echocardiography meant for fellows, and echocardiographers. Others can skip please )  This is a 27-year-old woman who was referred for routine* cardiac evaluation. What do you see? What is the diagnosis? This echo clip is from a woman who is 8 months pregnant. What you are seeing is perfectly physiologically and normal. On lying down there is a mechanical push of the diaphragm altering the LV shape and contraction. In the short axis, the left ventricle is contracting well, but the shape is not spherical in systole implying some desynchrony. Further, the  IVS arena is contracting vigorously, which makes, the other segments appear to be poorly contracting. (Someone could report it as a wall motion defect in antero- lateral segments inviting temporary panic) It is worthwhile to go through this list of non-ischemic WMA and find the pregnancy at the bottom of the list. Few more conditions, that can be added to this list Though LBBB is the classical cause for WMA, we have seen even LAFB showing the bumpy motion of IVS and the anterior wall. Some patients with ERS and some patients with Brugada show wall motion defects due to repolarisation heterogeneity.  Regioanl pericarditis Intracardiac scars. Localized fibrosis. Extracardiac tumors  iFAQ on this topic  Is this wall motion defect in pregnancy, really an artifact or real?  They are true artifacts in the sense, the heart is an innocent byst...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Cardiology -Hemodynamics Echocardiography -Normal measurement Echocardiography-hemodynamics Teaching points cardiology research topic non ischemic wall motion defect in echocardiography wall motion defect in ers wall motion defect in lbbb Source Type: blogs