Work

Non-invasive assessment of left ventricular relaxation during atrial fibrillation using mitral flow propagation velocity

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: AIMS: To elucidate the usefulness of the early diastolic mitral flow propagation velocity (V(p)) obtained from colour M-mode Doppler for non-invasively assessing left-ventricular (LV) relaxation during atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS AND RESULTS: Ten healthy adult dogs were studied to correlate V(p) with the invasive minimum value of the first derivative of LV pressure decay (dP/dt(min)) and the time constant of isovolumic LV pressure decay (tau) at baseline, during rapid and slow AF, and during AF after inducing myocardial infarction. There were significant positive and negative curvilinear relationships between V(p) and dP/dt(min) and tau, respectively, during rapid AF. After slowing the ventricular rate, the average value of V(p) increased, while dP/dt(min) increased and tau decreased. After inducing myocardial infarction, the average value of V(p) decreased, while dP/dt(min) decreased and tau increased. CONCLUSION: The non-invasively obtained V(p) evaluates LV relaxation even during AF regardless of ventricular rhythm or the presence of pathological changes.

Source: European Journal of Echocardiography

DOI: 10.1093/ejechocard/jep083