CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Vol 24, No 5, June 2013
AFRICA
159
reproducibility of measurements was good, with lower variability
of intra- and inter-observer. In particular, we found LA-GLSRe
was significantly correlated with both LA 2D Doppler
echocardiographic parameters and LV contractile function, and
could be an optimal parameter of 2D STE in assessing the degree
of impairment of heart function in patients with NSTEMI.
These data suggest that speckle tracking echocardiography
may be considered a promising tool to explore LA myocardial
deformation dynamics.
Study limitations
A number of obvious limitations of our study should be noted.
First, the 2D STE analysis software that was originally designed
for the left ventricle was applied to the left atrium in our study.
Second, echocardiography in this study was not performed in the
emergency room but on arrival at the coronary care unit or one
to three days later. Third, the relatively small number of patients
eligible for analysis in the present study may render it difficult to
generalise the results and apply them to other patient populations.
Further larger, prospective studies are required to determine the
cost effectiveness of this new technique to evaluate LA function
in NSTEMI patients. Lastly, this was a cross-sectional study, and
therefore no clinical outcomes were examined.
Conclusions
Our study demonstrated that two-dimensional speckle tracking
echocardiography represented a non-invasive, relatively simple
and reproducible technique to assess left atrial myocardial
function in patients with NSTEMI. Considering the limitations
of classical indices of LA function, speckle tracking is easy
to operate and has the advantage of being angle independent
and less affected by reverberations. The reservoir and conduit
function of the left atrium were impaired in these patients,
compared with age-matched healthy controls. Importantly,
LA-GLSRe was significantly correlated with both LA 2D
Doppler echocardiographic parameters and LV contractile
function and could be suggested as a better indicator to evaluate
LA function as a preferred parameter of STE.
We thank Drs You Tao and Shao Chunlai, Department of Cardiology, the
Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, for statistical advice.
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