ABSTRACT
Objective To quantitatively evaluate the left ventricular systolic synchrony in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) by real-time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT-3DE). Methods Thirty patients with CRF and twenty-five normal subjects were enrolled in this study.The M-mode ejection fraction (M-EF), left ventricular end diastolic internal diameter (LVIDd), interventricular septum diameter (IVSd), left ventricular posterior wall diameter (LVPWd) were obtained on two-dimension. The global and regional volume-time curves were obtained on three -dimensional. The end diastolic volume (LVEDV),end systolic volume (LVESV) and ejection fraction (LVEF) of left ventricule, the time to minimal systolic volume (Tmsv) of 16,12,6-segmental standard deviation (Tmsv16, 12, 6-SD), maximal difference (Tmsv16, 12, 6-Dif) were derived from Qlab software . The above parameters as a percentage of the cardiac cycle with different heart rates between patients were also calculated from the Qlab software, which were Tmsv16, 12, 6-SD% and Tmsv16, 12, 6-Dif %, rspectively. Results The indices of HR, LVIDd, IVSd, LVPWd and LVESV were significantly higher while LVEF was significantly lower in the CRF group than those of the control group (P<0.05 or P<0.01); The indices of systolic asynchrony of Tmsv16,12-SD%, Tmsv16,12-Dif, Tmsv16 ,12 ,6-SD/R-R%,Tmsv16,12,6-Dif/R-R% were significantly larger in the CRF group than those of the control group(P<0.05 or P<0.01). Conclusions RT-3DE provides a simple, intuitional and noninvasive approach to assess the systolic synchrony of all the LV segments simultaneously and LVEF in patients with chronic renal failure.