Vector flow mapping in quantitative assessment of regional myocardial function in patients with coronary artery disease / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate blood flow dynamics adjacent to regional myocardial segments in coronary artery disease(CAD) patients and to explore the association of the two CAD features.Methods In 43 CAD patients,velocity vector imaging (VVI) was used to evaluate the wall motion and classify normal myocardial segments (NS),relatively abnormal and obviously abnormal wall motion segments (RS and OS) by systolic peak strain (Ss).Vector flow mapping (VFM) was used to show blood flow dynamics in the heart chamber,including blood flow (Q) heading towards or away from the apex during a heart beat and time to every peak flow (T).Results Compared with NS,both RS and OS showed a higher systole Q + (blood flow heading towards the apex during systole) and lower diastole Q + (blood flow heading towards the apex during diastole) and shortened T2 (adjusted time interval between E and A peaks).Systole Q + was positively correlated with Ss but negatively with segmental ejection fraction (SEF).Diastole Q + was negatively correlated with early and late diastolic peak velocity (Ve and Va) but positively with Ve/Va.T2 was negatively correlated with Ve but positively with Ve/Va and early diastolic peak strain rate (SRe).Conclusions VFM might be a new tool to quantitatively assess change in regional blood flow dynamics in patients with CAD.