Background: The Doppler Tissue Imaging (DTI) is a recent Doppler method that allows to measure the velocities of myocardial walls. Thus, DTI may analyse myocardial contraction and give a quantitative evaluation of systolic and diastolic function. The aim of the study is to appraise the myocardial contraction of the left ventricle in patients with a recent myocardial infarction (MI) comparing data of standard echocardiography with those of DTI.
Methods: Fifteen patients with recent uncomplicated MI (22+/-6 days from the study) and 10 normal subjects have been studied. All population studied underwent bidimensional echocardiography with DTI analysis of different myocardial segments.
Results: In the infarcted patients, myocardial velocities were significantly reduced in comparison with the normal subjects in systole and in diastole. In patients with MI the picks of systolic velocities of normokinetic segments were significantly higher than those of akinetic/diskinetic segments (p<0.05).
Conclusion: In myocardial infarction, the contraction of left ventricle is altered and it can be analysed and quantified through of the new indexes of systolic and diastolic myocardial function furnished by the DTI.