Mitral Annular Velocities Generated by Speckle Tracking Imaging: Reproducibility and Correlation with Tissue Doppler Velocities

BACKGROUND: Early diastolic mitral annular velocities (E') are routinely generated by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI), an angle-dependent technique. Velocity vector imaging (VVI) lacks this limitation. Normal VVI E' values and their correlation with TDI E' are unknown. METHODS: E' by VVI and TDI were compared in 100 patients. RESULTS: VVI velocities are lower and correlate moderately with TDI velocities for medial E' (r = 0.405) and mildly for lateral E' (r = 0.278) and are image quality dependent. In patients with diastolic or systolic dysfunction, no correlation was found. E' < 0.06 m/s by VVI for the medial and lateral annulus can detect abnormal diastolic function with sensitivity of 90% and 77%, respectively, and with specificity of 56% and 52%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: E' by VVI is lower than by TDI with a poor agreement between the measurements, which are therefore not interchangeable. Although VVI can be performed offline, this method is dependent on image quality.