ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the value of ultrasonic two‐dimensional speckle tracking imaging ( 2D‐ST I) layer‐specific strain and transmural gradient in evaluating the changes of hypertensive patients′left ventricular three layers myocardial function . Methods Thirty‐five hypertensive patients without renal insufficiency were selected as group A ,and 25 hypertensive patients with renal insufficiency as group B .For comparison ,40 healthy volunteers were gathered as control group . T hen ,the systolic peak longitudinal strain of the left ventricle( LPS) ,endocardium( LPS Endo ) ,mid‐cardium ( LPSMid ) and epicardium ( LPSEpi ) were collected .After that ,features of transmural gradient ( ΔLS ) and its percentage ( ΔLS% ) were analyzed . Results For each group ,gradient features exist in each layer of left ventricular myocardium :LPS Endo ＞LPSMid＞LPSEpi . For each group ,the differences between LPSEndo and LPSMid ,and that between LPSEndo and LPSEpi were both statistically significant( P ＜0 .05) . When it came to the differences between LPS Mid and LPSEpi ,those of group A and control group were both statistically significant ( P ＜0 .05 ) . Compared with control group ,the LPSEndo of group A ,and LPSEndo ,LPSMid and LPSEpi of group B declined ,all the differences were statistically significant ( P ＜0 .05 ) . Compared with group A ,LPS Endo ,LPSMid and LPSEpi of group B declined ,the differences were statistically significant ( all P ＜0 .05) . For ΔLS′s differences among all three groups ,there was no statistical significance( P ＞0 .05) . Compared with control group ,the ΔLS% Endo‐Mid of group A rised , and the ΔLS% Endo‐Mid , ΔLS% Mid‐Epi of group B rised , the differences were statistically siginificant ( all P ＜ 0 .05 ) . Compared with group A ,the ΔLS% Endo‐Mid ,ΔLS% Mid‐Epi of group B rised ,the differences were statistically siginificant( all P ＜0 .05) . Conclusions T he layer‐specific strain technique can quantitatively evaluate the changes of systolic function of the left ventricular myocardium in hypertensive patients . ΔLS% may have better sensitivity than ΔLS in dection of systolic function damage of the left ventricular myocardium and can provide more reference for the evaluation of left ventricular systolic function .