Detection of Late Gadolinium Enhancement on Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance by Global Longitudinal Strain Using Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography in Patients with Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy

Background The presence of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), suggesting myocardial fibrosis is useful as a prognostic index in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM). The present study aimed to investigate whether left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) using speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) can be used as a surrogate marker for the detection of CMR-LGE in patients with NICM. Methods The study included 50 patients with NICM who underwent both STE and CMR. The presence, or absence of CMR-LGE was assessed in all patients, whereas STE-GLS was successfully analyzed in 41/50 (82%) patients. Therefore, the final study population comprised these 41 patients. Patients were divided into those with CMR-LGE (Group A; n = 18) and those without CMR-LGE (Group B; n = 23). Echocardiographic indexes including GLS was 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 transtricuspid pressure gradient between the Groups- A and B (113 ± 30 vs. 109 ± 24 mL/m2, 82 ± 27 vs. 78 ± 22 mL/m2, 28 ± 6 vs. 29 ± 7%, 1.3 ± 1.1 vs. 1.2 ± 0.8, 201 ± 82 vs. 214 ± 69 ms, 11.3 ± 3.7 vs. 11.7 ± 5.9, 49 ± 24 vs. 49 ± 13 mL/m2, and 29 ± 10 vs. 24 ± 7 mmHg, respectively). STE-GLS in Group A was significantly worse than that in Group B (− 7.6 ± 3.0% vs. −9.9 ± 3.2%, p = 0.01). According to receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, STE-GLS of − 7.9% was the best cut-off value for detection of CMR-LGE (sensitivity, 78%; specificity, 74%; area under the curve, 0.74). Conclusions STE-GLS may be used as a surrogate marker for the detection of CMR-LGE in patients with NICM.