Page 16 - The role of advanced echocardiography in patients with ischemic heart disease - Rachid Abou

ABSTRACT
Assessment of left ventricular systolic function is pivotal for the diagnosis, risk stratification and management of patients with cardiovascular disease. Left ventricular ejection fraction is the most frequently used parameter to characterise left ventricular systolic function and is usually included in practice guidelines to select the therapeutic strategies. However, left ventricular ejection fraction has many limitations, not only in terms of reproducibility of the measurement but also in terms of not being accurate enough to detect early left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Myocardial strain imaging using echocardiography has shown that left ventricular global longitudinal strain is more sensitive to detect subclinical left ventricular systolic dysfunction and is more reproducible than left ventricular ejection fraction. This review article is a practical guide on the technical aspects of left ventricular global longitudinal strain measurements and summarises the available evidence on the clinical use of this parameters. Furthermore, we provide a glimpse into future clinical applications derived from left ventricular global longitudinal strain that are being increasing used in clinical practice.