Age-related intramyocardial patterns in healthy subjects evaluated with Doppler tissue imaging.

Background: The aim of this study is to analyse spatial distribution of myocardial velocities (MV) and myocardial velocity gradient (MVG) with color M-mode Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) and to analyse the influence of age in such parameters.

Methods And Results: A prospective study including 66 healthy volunteers was carried out with color M-mode DTI. Postprocessing of images was performed using proprietary software allowing the division of the myocardial wall into subendocardium, mesocardium and subepicardium.

New techniques for the assessment of regional left ventricular wall motion.

The assessment of regional left ventricular (LV) function has been an important yet unresolved problem since the introduction of echocardiography as a diagnostic tool. Abnormal regional LV wall motion is an early finding in multiple cardiac pathologies and its diagnosis is of critical importance. In the last few years diagnostic procedures based on combined use of existing echocardiographic technologies were geared toward improving the accuracy of detection of baseline and/or induced regional wall motion abnormalities.