2D speckle-tracking echocardiography in healthy newborns showed good to excellent interobserver agreement, establishing reference intervals for LV peak longitudinal strain (-24.65 to -14.62).
Observational (n=103)
What are the reference intervals and interobserver agreement for biventricular myocardial deformation using 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography in full-term, healthy newborns?
2D speckle-tracking echocardiography provides reproducible biventricular strain measurements in healthy full-term newborns, establishing reference intervals for clinical practice.
Data regarding reference intervals for strain parameters derived from 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography in full-term newborns are limited and still under development. Our objectives were to establish the level of reproducibility and reference intervals in assessing myocardial function using 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography for longitudinal and regional strain measurements. A total of 127 full-term newborns were examined to be included in the study, of which 103 were analyzed. We used two-dimensional acquisitions from apical four-chamber view of both ventricles and analyzed the autostrain function offline. We obtained interobserver agreement between the two observers ranging from good to excellent for all speckle-tracking parameters except for the strain of the medial portion of the left ventricle (LV) lateral wall and the strain measured on the basal portion of the inter-ventricular septum, which reflected a fair interobserver reproducibility (ICC = 0.52, 95% IC: 0.22-0.72 and ICC = 0.43, 95% IC: 0.12-0.67, respectively). The reference values obtained for the LV peak longitudinal strain were between -24.65 and -14.62, those for the right ventricle (RV) free wall were from -28.69 to -10.68, and those for the RV global four-chamber were from -22.30 to -11.37. In conclusion, two-dimensional peak longitudinal LV and RV strains are reproducible with good to excellent agreement and may represent a possible alternative for the cardiac assessment of healthy newborns in the clinical practice.
Toma et al. (Fri,) conducted a observational in Healthy full-term newborns (n=103). 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography was evaluated on Interobserver agreement and reference intervals for longitudinal and regional strain measurements. 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography in healthy newborns showed good to excellent interobserver agreement, establishing reference intervals for LV peak longitudinal strain (-24.65 to -14.62).