Prevalence of Left Ventricular Diastolic Asynchrony in Patient with Systolic Heart Failure

Abstract

Background: To study the occurrence of left ventricular (LV) diastolic asynchrony in patients with systolic heart failure (HF) and its relationship to diastolic function regardless of QRS duration. Recent work has demonstrated that intraventricular asynchrony is a common finding in patients with systolic heart failure. Little attention has been paid to diastolic asynchrony in patients with systolic heart failure. We have therefore decided to determine the extent to which patients with systolic heart failure have evidence of diastolic asynchrony and whether or not diastolic asynchrony is correlated with diastolic dysfunction. Patients and Methods: Tissue Doppler echocardiography was performed in 50 HF patients (LV EF=23 ± 8%). Diastolic and systolic asynchrony was determined by tissue synchronization imaging using a 6 basal, 6 midsegmental model. Systolic and diastolic asynchrony were assessed by the maximal difference in time to peak systolic and early diastolic velocities between any two of 12 LV segments, and the standard deviation of time to peak systolic and early diastolic velocities of the 12 LV segments. Results: The mean ± SD maximal difference in time to peak systolic velocity (controls: 17.2± 9.6 ms versus narrow QRS: 66.7 ± 38.0 ms versus wide QRS: 76.5± 34.6 ms, both P