ABSTRACT
Objective: To assess the regional systolic and diastolic function of left ventricle before and after coronary stent implantation by pulsed wave Doppler tissue imaging (PW-DTI). Methods: Twenty-six patients with coronary artery disease ( CAD) involving only left anterior descending coronary artery ( LAD) were examined within 1-3 days before, 7 days and 30 days after coronary stenting with PW-DTI. Peak systolic , peak early diastolic, and peak late diastolic motion velocities ( Sm, Em, and Am respectively) were measured at 6 different sites on the basal and medial segments corresponding to the anteroseptal, postero-septal, lateral, anterior, inferior, and posterior walls of the left ventricle. Results:In corresponding segments depending on LAD blood flow supply, Sm was increased significantly 7 days after the stenting proce- dure. Em was also increased 7 days after the procedure in most of the corresponding segments. There were little changes in other segments that were independent on LAD blood flow supply. Conclusion: These findings suggest that there is an early improvement in the regional systolic and diastolic function of the left ventricle after the coronary stenting, and that PW-DTI techniques could evaluate quantitatively the regional ventricular performance in patients receiving percutaneous coronary intervention.