The Early Variation of Left Ventricular Strain after Aortic Valve Replacement by Three-Dimensional Echocardiography

PLoS One. 2015 Oct 16;10(10):e0140469. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140469. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Aortic stenosis (AS) and aortic incompetence (AI) are common aortic valve diseases. Both may deteriorate into irreversible myocardial dysfunction and will increase the risk of sudden death. In this study, we aimed to investigate the early variation trend of left ventricular function by three-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (3D-STE) in the patients who underwent cardiac surgeries for aortic valve disease. Twenty patients with severe aortic AS and 16 patients with severe AI were enrolled. All of them underwent the aortic valve replacement (AVR) procedures. The patients' global longitudinal strain (GLS) and global circumferential strain (GCS) were evaluated by 3D-STE before surgery and at 1 week after surgery. In addition, GLS and GCS were followed at 1 month as well as 3 months after AVR. In AS patients, the GCS after AVR altered little both at 1 week (p = 0.562) and at 1 month (p = 0.953) compared with the data before the surgery. And it increased significantly at 3 months of follow-up observation compared to that before AVR (p<0.05). Meanwhile, GLS increased progressively after AVR and improved significantly at 3 months after surgery (p<0.05). For the AI patients, GLS as well as GCS decreased at 1 week after AVR compared to those data at baseline (p<0.05). However, these two parameters recovered at 1 month after AVR. Furthermore, GLS and GCS improved significantly at 3 months after the surgery (p<0.05). Therefore, both GLS and GCS were influenced by AVR and would be improved at 3 months after surgery both in AS patients or AI patients. GLS and GCS can be finely evaluated by 3D-STE, and they are helpful to determine the variation tendency of left ventricular function in patients with AVR.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aortic Valve Insufficiency / physiopathology
  • Aortic Valve Insufficiency / surgery*
  • Aortic Valve Stenosis / physiopathology
  • Aortic Valve Stenosis / surgery*
  • Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional / methods*
  • Female
  • Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation
  • Heart Ventricles / physiopathology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Ventricular Function, Left

Grants and funding

The study was supported by the Shanghai Institute of Medical Imaging Scientific Fund (SHIMI-GJ-2013-005) www.zs-hospital.sh.cn and Chinese National Scientific Fund (No. 81201095) www.nsfc.gov.cn. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.