ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to assess ventricular function by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in children with clinically diagnosed myocarditis (n=2) and dilated cardiomyopathy (n=5) and to compare those results with those of normal controls (n=28). METHOD: This study was conducted on 2 patients with myocarditis and 5 with dilated cardiomyopathy with multiple follow up studies (1-4 times) from one week to 6 months intervals (20 cases) from March 2004 to July 2005 at Kyungpook National University hospital. The results were compared with those of normal controls (28 cases). Peak early diastolic (E), and peak late diastolic (A) velocity of transmitral flow were measured by pulsed wave Doppler examination. Peak systolic (Sm), peak early diastolic (Em), peak late diastolic (Am) velocity in apical 4-chamber and 2-chamber views were measured by TDI. RESULTS: There were significant decreases of 4Etv, 4Eiv, 4Smv, 4Emv, 2Eiv in the patients group compared with those of control but no significant correlation with the fractional shortenings. CONCLUSION: Tissue Doppler imaging is useful for the evaluation of the myocardial function and more study for children is needed.