Assessment of strain and dyssynchrony in normal fetuses using speckle tracking echocardiography - comparison of three different ultrasound probes.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate segmental left (LV-S) and right (RV-S) ventricular strain as well as longitudinal mechanical myocardial dyssynchrony as a time difference between peaks in strain of both ventricles in fetuses (two-chamber-dyssynchrony, 2C-DYS) using speckle tracking echocardiography (STE). The aim of our study was to evaluate the influence of data acquisition on the results of STE measurement using different ultrasound probes.


METHODS
We prospectively recorded cardiac cycles of four-chamber views of 56 normal fetuses with three different ultrasound probes and analyzed them offline with speckle tracking imaging software. Furthermore, we looked at a possible influence of heartbeat variability (beat-to-beat variability).


RESULTS
The evaluation of the parameters was feasible with all three probes in 53 cases. There was no influence of heartbeat variability and no noticeable differences in 2C-DYS, LV-S and RV-S in all cases and for all three probes determined.


CONCLUSION
Assessment of strain and dyssynchrony using STE with three different probes is comparable. Further research is needed to validate dyssynchrony as a predictor for fetal outcome.
['Rolf|Daniel|D|', 'Schmidt|Rene|R|', 'Möllers|Mareike|M|', 'Oelmeier de Murcia|Kathrin|K|', 'Braun|Janina|J|', 'Hammer|Kerstin|K|', 'Klockenbusch|Walter|W|', 'Schmitz|Ralf|R|']
D000328:Adult D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena D002319:Cardiovascular System D057186:Comparative Effectiveness Research D004452:Echocardiography D005260:Female D005333:Fetus D006801:Humans D011247:Pregnancy D015203:Reproducibility of Results D016216:Ultrasonography, Prenatal
strain Dyssynchrony fetal myocardial deformation two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography