Myocardial function in aortic stenosis--insights from radial multilayer Doppler strain.

Background: Left ventricular (LV) radial tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) strain increases gradually from the subepicardial to the subendocardial layer in healthy individuals. A speckle tracking echocardiography study suggested this gradient to be reduced in parallel with increasing aortic stenosis (AS) severity.

Methods: We used TDI strain in 84 patients with AS (mean age 73 ± 10 years, 56% hypertensive) for superior assessment of layer strain.