The Role of Speckle Tracking Echocardiography in the Evaluation of Common Inherited Cardiomyopathies in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Figure 1. PRISMA flowchart of screened, included and excluded studies.

Figure 2. Albatross plot showing estimated standardized mean differences contours (curved lines), p values for difference between inherited cardiomyopathy and controls (horizontal axis) and study sample size (vertical axis) of speckle tracking measurements by cardiomyopathy type in (A). Dilated cardiomyopathy; (B). Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (C). Left ventricular non-compaction. Negative association–lower values (including more negative) associated with disease; positive association–higher values (including less negative) associated with disease. A4C, apical four chamber view; GLS, global longitudinal strain; rot, rotation; Sl, longitudinal strain; Sc, circumferential strain; Sr, radial strain.

Figure 3. Albatross plot showing estimated standardized mean differences contours (curved lines), p values for difference between inherited cardiomyopathies and controls (horizontal axis) and study sample size (vertical axis) of conventional echocardiographic measurements by cardiomyopathy type in (A). Dilated cardiomyopathy; (B). Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (C). Left ventricular non-compaction. Negative association–lower values (including more negative) associated with disease; positive association–higher values (including less negative) associated with disease.

Figure 4. Funnel plot of Standardized Mean Difference (SMD) and SMD standard error with pseudo 95% CI limits for all study measurements, showing no significant asymmetry, which suggests low risk of publication bias. Eggert test p value is 0.08.

Figure 5. Newcastle Ottawa scale risk of bias evaluation results. Total maximum is 9 points, Selection is 3 points, Comparability is 2 points and Exposure is 4 points. Semi qualitative subjective risk of bias grading is green for low risk, orange for some concerns and red for high risk.