Strain and strain rate imaging: a promising tool for evaluation of ventricular function

Prognosis in patients with heart failure is inversely related to the remaining left ventricular function.Decrease of systolic function is mostly uniform in idiopathic myopathies.However, frequently impairment of left ventricular function is not global but regional.The extent of regional systolic dysfunction may be assessed quantitatively or qualitatively.Although many non-invasive methods have been developed for evaluation of myocardial function, some methods are hampered by being subjective and only partially quantitative and have been shown to be subjective and experience dependent [1].Non invasive imaging of left and right ventricular function can be done with radionuclide ventriculography, 2D echocardiography, 3D echocardiography, contrast echocardiography, both 2D and 3D gated single photon emission tomography, cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography.Recently tissue Doppler myocardial imaging, color Doppler myocardial imaging and 2D speckle tracking have been developed.These techniques use the frequency shifts of ultrasound waves to calculate myocardial velocity.Color flow imaging takes the pulsed-wave Doppler frequency shift over a set of range gates and a number of acoustic lines.With this