Global longitudinal strain evaluated by speckle‐tracking echocardiography as a surrogate marker for predicting replacement fibrosis detected by magnetic resonance‐late gadolinium enhancement in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy

Purpose This study aimed to investigate whether left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) evaluated by speckle‐tracking echocardiography (STE) can be used as a surrogate marker for the detection of replacement fibrosis by late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM). Methods This study analyzed 41 NICM patients who successfully underwent both STE and CMR, and were divided into those with (Group A, n = 18) and those without CMR‐LGE (Group B, n = 23). Echocardiographic indexes, including GLS, were compared between the two groups. Results No significant differences were observed in LV end‐diastolic and end‐systolic volume indexes, LV ejection fraction, mitral E/A, deceleration time, E / e ′, left atrial volume index, and the systolic trans‐tricuspid pressure gradient between Groups A and B. STE‐GLS was significantly worse in Group A than in Group B (−7.6% ± 3.0% vs −9.9% ± 3.2%, P = .01). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that STE‐GLS of −7.9% was the best cut‐off value for detection of CMR‐LGE (sensitivity, 78%; specificity, 74%; and area under the curve, 0.74). Conclusions STE‐GLS may be a potential surrogate marker for the detection of CMR‐LGE‐derived replacement fibrosis in patients with NICM.