Coronary tortuosity affects left ventricular myocardial functions: a 3D-speckle tracking echocardiography study

AbstractCoronary artery tortuosity (CAT) is a common finding in coronary angiography, and is defined as three fixed bends during both systole and diastole in at least one epicardial coronary artery, with each bend showing a 45 ° change in vessel direction. The impact of CAT on the myocardial deformation has not been completely evaluated using 3D-STE. As a result of this, we aimed to assess the effects of CAT on LV functions using 3D-STE in the present study. Eighty-two patients with CAT and 80 age- and gender-matched con trols who proved to have normal coronary angiograms were enrolled into the study. 3D-STE was performed and LV-GLS, LV-GCS, LV-GAS, and LV-GRS were obtained for every patient after coronary angiography. The LV-GLS was significantly depressed in the CAT ( +) group than in the control group (p =  0.001). ROC analysis was performed to find out ideal LV-GLS cut off value to predict the presence of CAT. A LV-GLS value of > − 17 has 81.3% sensitivity, 56.7% specificity to detect the presence of CAT. The present study is the first to focus on the assessing LV myocardial functions in patients with CAT by 3D-STE. CAT has a considerable negative effect on LV myocardial longitudinal deformation as evaluated by 3D strain p arameters. Our results support that patients with CAT may have subclinical LV longitudinal deformation abnormalities even though they are apparently healthy.
Source: The International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging - Category: Radiology Source Type: research