Cardiac involvement in hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) patients entails significant morbidity and mortality. Left ventricular (LV) endocardial damage is important for the development of cardiac involvement in HES patients. However very early stage LV endocardial damage, such as prior to the first stage of an acute necrotic stage, remains uncertain. We studied 32 HES patients, all with normal conventional echocardiographic findings. Global radial and circumferential strain (GRS and GCS) were determined for each peak global strain curve from the mid-LV short-axis view, and global longitudinal strain (GLS) was averaged each peak global strain curve from standard apical views by means of two-dimensional speckle-tracking method. Thirty-one age-, gender-, LV ejection fraction-matched normal subjects were studied for comparison. GRS and GRS were similar for HES patients and normal controls, but GLS for HES patients was significantly lower than that for normal controls (16.2 ± 3.3 % vs 19.3 ± 2.9 %, p < 0.001). Furthermore, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified GLS ≤17.0 % as the best predictor of LV endocardial dysfunction with a sensitivity of 66 %, specificity of 78 %, and area under the curve of 0.781 (p = 0.0001). In conclusions, LV endocardial dysfunction pre-existed even in HES patients without apparent cardiac involvement. GLS as assessed with the two-dimensional speckle-tracking method is a promising tool for the better management of very early stage of HES patients.
Keywords: Echocardiography; Global longitudinal strain; Hypereosinophilic syndrome; Left ventricular endocardial dysfunction.