Does food intake alter commonly used pulsed Doppler and tissue Doppler echocardiographic measurements in healthy subjects?
Food intake significantly alters several routine echocardiographic Doppler measurements of diastolic function and hemodynamics, suggesting fasting state should be considered for serial assessments.
OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates the effect of food intake on commonly used pulsed Doppler and tissue Doppler measurements. METHODS: Twenty-three healthy subjects aged 25.6 ± 4.5 years were investigated. A wide selection of pulsed Doppler and tissue Doppler variables were measured before a standardized meal as well as and 30 and 110 minutes afterwards. RESULTS: The following variables increased significantly (P 0.05) changes in E/A, early diastolic tissue Doppler velocities (e'), and E/e'. Most, but not all variables returned to baseline values 110 minutes after food intake. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that food intake affects several echocardiographic variables used to routinely assess diastolic function and hemodynamics. Further studies are warranted in older healthy subjects and in patients with various cardiac diseases to determine whether the findings are reproducible in such populations.
Dencker et al. (Tue,) studied this question.