Doppler echocardiography identifies three patterns of left ventricular filling indicating progressively greater diastolic dysfunction, where shorter deceleration times correlate with a poor prognosis.
How can left ventricular diastolic function be evaluated from the pattern of left ventricular filling using Doppler echocardiography?
Doppler echocardiography can identify progressive patterns of LV diastolic dysfunction based on filling patterns, with short deceleration time indicating increased LV stiffness and poor prognosis.
The pattern of left ventricular (LV) filling can be determined by Doppler echocardiography. Normally most LV filling occurs early in diastole, with some additional filling occurring during atrial systole, late in diastole. In the absence of mitral stenosis, three patterns of LV filling indicate progressively greater diastolic dysfunction: (1) Reduced early diastolic filling with a compensatory increase in importance of atrial filling, termed a pattern of "impaired relaxation;" (2) "pseudo-normalization" with most filling early in diastole but with rapid deceleration of mitral flow; and (3) "restricted filling" with almost all filling of the LV occurring very early in diastole in association with very rapid deceleration of mitral flow. A large, prolonged atrial regurgitant flow in the pulmonary veins also indicates impaired diastolic performance. The time for early filling deceleration is predominantly determined by LV stiffness: the shorter the deceleration time, the stiffer the LV. Patients with short deceleration time have a poor prognosis.
Little et al. (Thu,) conducted a review in Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. Doppler echocardiography was evaluated. Doppler echocardiography identifies three patterns of left ventricular filling indicating progressively greater diastolic dysfunction, where shorter deceleration times correlate with a poor prognosis.