Subclinical Left Ventricular Dysfunction in Preeclamptic Women With Preserved Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction

Background— Patients with preeclampsia are at risk for cardiovascular disease. Changes in cardiac function are subtle in preeclampsia and are difficult to quantify with conventional imaging. Strain measurements using speckle-tracking echocardiography have been used to sensitively quantify abnormalities in other disease settings. Methods and Results— We evaluated the feasibility and sensitivity of strain imaging using speckle-tracking echocardiography in women with preeclampsia. Forty-seven women were enrolled in this pilot study and 39 were analyzed: 11 with preeclampsia, 17 without a hypertensive disorder, and 11 with nonproteinuric hypertension. Echocardiographic ejection fraction and global peak longitudinal, radial, and circumferential strain were measured. Longitudinal strain was significantly worsened in women with preeclampsia compared with women without a hypertensive disorder ( P =0.0001). Similar results were observed for radial strain ( P =0.006) and circumferential strain ( P =0.03). Women with preeclampsia also had significantly worsened longitudinal ( P =0.04), radial ( P =0.01), and circumferential ( P =0.002) strain compared with women with nonproteinuric hypertension. Women with preeclampsia did not have a significantly different ejection fraction compared with women without a hypertensive disorder ( P =0.16) and women with nonproteinuric hypertension ( P =0.44). Conclusions— Myocardial strain imaging using speckle tracking is more sensitive than left ventricular ejection fraction to detect differences in left ventricular systolic function in women with and without preeclampsia.