Background: It has been reported that impaired left ventricular longitudinal function may precede circumferential ventricular dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease.
Objective: To determine the impact of PCI on myocardial function assessed by tissue Doppler echocardiography in patients with chronic stable angina.
Patients and methods: Twenty-five consecutive patients with chronic stable angina and preserved systolic LV function (EF %> 50%) underwent PCI were studied by pulsed wave tissue Doppler at different time intervals before and after PCI. All patients were subjected to the following: Full history and physical examination, ECG, echocardiography before PCI to evaluate baseline systolic and diastolic function as well as 1 day and 6 weeks after intervention, and pulsed-wave tissue Doppler echocardiography was done before PCI, as well as 1 day and 6 weeks after intervention to detect mitral and tricuspid inflow velocities, including E and A wave peak velocities (in centimeters per second).
Results: We found that LV systolic myocardial peak velocities improved significantly after PCI at the septal, lateral, anterior, and inferior walls of LV and insignificantly at posterior wall by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI). There was a significant increase of E' wave, A 'wave, and E'/A' ratio at anterior angle of mitral valve annulus after PCI by TDI. The right ventricle showed significant improvement in tissue Doppler measurements of systolic function, 1 day and 6 weeks after PCI compared with baseline values (P< 0.001), while it was not detected by conventional echocardiography
Conclusions: Tissue Doppler echocardiography is a noninvasive and widely available diagnostic technique that allows the sensitive detection of right and left myocardial dysfunction