Multicentre study investigates determinants of LA reservoir and pump strain

In the most cited article published in European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Imaging these past two years, the authors of this multicentre study conclude that accuracy of LA strains to identify elevated LV filling pressure was best in patients with reduced LV systolic function. High values of LA pump strain, however, identified normal LV filling pressure with good accuracy in patients with normal systolic function.

Publisert 25.08.2022

Demonstration of elevated left ventricular (LV) filling pressure is important for the heart failure (HF) diagnosis. In a joint recommendation from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI), it was proposed to use a combination of several echocardiographic parameters to evaluate LV filling pressure. The validity of this approach was recently confirmed in two multicentre studies with invasive pressure as gold standard. However, a limitation of this multi-marker approach for estimation of LV filling pressure is that a number of patients remain uncategorized due to lack of one or more of the required echocardiographic parameters. Left atrial (LA) reservoir and pump strain measured by speckle tracking echocardiography are proposed as supplementary markers of LV filling pressure.