Left atrial myocardial function and compliance in pre-eclampsia with preserved left ventricular systolic and diastolic function

This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of LA myocardial function indices in detecting early cardiac alterations in PE. Using speckle tracking echocardiography (STE), LA volumetric and myocardial parameters were acquired in PE women with preserved left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function based on standard criteria and normotensive controls. LA compliance was assessed by the ratio of reservoir strain (LASr) to the estimated LA pressure (E/e ’). Subtle systolic and diastolic abnormalities were identified as LV global longitudinal strain <  17.8% and mitral tissue e’ velocity <  7 cm/s septal or <  10 cm/s lateral, respectively. LASr/(E/e’) was prior to other LA measurements in detecting early LA function changes in PE. The rate of LASr/(E/e’) <  3 was significantly greater in the patients with subtle systolic impairments than those without (P <  0.05) in spite of similar proportion of LASr <  31% between them. Among PE women with subtle diastolic damages, the frequencies of anomaly and the values in both LASr/(E/e’) and LASr were significantly different to those without (P <  0.05). Moreover, the rate of LASr/(E/e’) <  3 was markedly higher than that of LASr <  31% in PE cases with subtle cardiac abnormalities (P <  0.05). In the setting of PE with preserved systolic and diastolic function, STE-derived LA strain and estimated LA compliance may be beneficial to identifying earlie...
Source: The International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging - Category: Radiology Source Type: research