Evaluation of Left Ventricular Diastolic Function by Doppler Echocardiography and Tissue Doppler Imaging in Chronic Cor Pulmonale

The aim of this study was to evaluate left ventricular (LV) diastolic parameters in patients with chronic cor pulmonale (CCP), and to compare these with healthy volunteers by using Doppler echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI). In this study, 33 patients (mean age: 60.1 ±12.0 years) with CCP and good echocardiographic image quality were examined, and 20 age-matched healthy volunteers constituted the control group. All patients and control group were in sinus rhythm. Patients and the controls underwent Doppler echocardiography and TDI examinations. All patients had a respiratory test and blood gas analyses. Additionally, systolic pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) was calculated in all patients. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) was defined as peak systolic pressure greater than 30 mmHg. Patients in CCP group had lower mitral E wave (p<0.05), higher A (p<0.01), lower E/A (p<0.0001), longer EDT (p<0.05) and isovolumetric relaxation time (IVRT) (p<0.01), lower mitral anular Em velocity (p<0.0001) and Em/Am ratio (p<0.001) than the control group. In addition, there was a significant correlation between PAP and the following parameters: Mitral E/A ratio (r=-0.422, p<0.05), IVRT (r=0.472, p<0.01) and mitral anular Em (r=-0.575, p<0.001). There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of age, gender, heart rate and systemic blood pressure. Patients with CCP have LV diastolic dysfunction, which is correlated to PH levels. We concluded that the combination of standard Doppler echocardiography and diastolic myocardial velocities measured by TDI may contribute to determining LV diastolic dysfunction in patients with CCP.