Assessing ventricular function in preterm infants using tissue Doppler imaging

Tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is a new echocardiographic technique that directly measures velocities in the myocardium. In adult cardiology, it has been well established that echocardiographic assessment using TDI in patients with heart failure should be essential. Recently, TDI assessment has also been applied in children, infants, fetuses, and preterm infants. In very preterm infants, we serially performed echocardiographic assessment including TDI prospectively, and found that TDI velocities at both the mitral and tricuspid valve annulus changed significantly within the first 24 hours of life. It was suggested that the E/Ea ratio for both ventricles in very preterm infants might be almost stable in the early neonatal period. It is suggested that assessment of ventricular function using TDI in preterm infants might be of great value because it allows assessment of both diastolic ventricular function and right ventricular function.