2019 Volume 68 Issue 4 Pages 663-670
In this study, we examined cardiac function strain in the left ventricular longitudinal axis direction before and after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), which is one of the treatments for aortic valve stenosis, using myocardial strain. The subjects were 20 patients who underwent TAVI at our hospital. We performed echocardiography TAVI at the preoperative, postoperative acute, and postoperative chronic phases, and the indexes of the longitudinal contraction for the left ventricular myocardium global longitudinal strain (GLS) were analyzed. Results of the analysis showed that there were no significant differences in GLS between the preoperative and postoperative acute phases (p = 0.09), with GLS of −11.5% in the 20 patients with TAVI at the preoperative phase and −12.0% in those in the postoperative acute phase. On the other hand, the GLS in the postoperative chronic phase was −14.4%, which is significantly different from that in the preoperative phase (p < 0.01). On the basis of this study, it was considered that the significant improvement in GLS between the TAVI preoperative and postoperative chronic phases and the treatment of the aortic valve continuously improves myocardial function in the left ventricular longitudinal axis direction. Also, before and after TAVI, there was no significant change in the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), but LVEF improved with GLS. With GLS, we were able to detect contraction abnormalities, which was not possible in the case of using LVEF, and myocardial strain was considered to be useful for the evaluation of cardiac function also in valvular disease.
