Background: This study was planned to assess strain and strain rate properties of right ventricle in patients with RV myocardial infarction.
Material and method: Thirty patients with acute inferior myocardial infarction were included in this study. The presence of right ventricular infarction in association with an inferior myocardial infarction was defined by an ST-segment elevation 0.1 mV in lead V4 R. According to this definition, 15 patients had electrocardiographic signs of inferior myocardial infarction without right ventricular infarction (group I), and 15 patients had electrocardiographic signs of inferior myocardial infarction with right ventricular infarction (group II). Echocardiography was performed using a Vivid 5 System (GE Ultrasound; Horten, Norway) and a 2.5-MHz transducer. 2-dimensional color doppler myocardial imaging (CDMI) data for longitudinal function were recorded from the RV free wall using standard apical view. Offline analysis of the myocardial color Doppler data for regional velocity (V), strain rate (Sr), and strain (S) curves was performed using a special software program (EchoPac 6.4 Vingmed, Horten, Norway). They were assessed in basal, middle and apical segments of the RV. The differences between different groups were assessed with the Mann-Whitney U-test. A value of P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Systolic tissue velocity, strain, strain rate of basal (4.8 +/- 0.8 cm/s vs 6.5 +/- 1.2 cm/s, -12 +/- 3% vs -24 +/- 5%, 1.28 +/- 0.3/s vs -1.9 +/- 0.4/s; P < 0.001, <0.001, <0.001, respectively) and mid (4.2 +/- 0.5 cm/s vs 5.4 +/- 0.5 cm/s, -16 +/-3% vs -26 +/- 4%, -1.2 +/- 0.3/s vs -2.1 +/- 0.3/s; P < 0.001, <0.001, <0.001, respectively) segments of right ventricle were significantly lower in patients with RV infarction than in patients without RV infarction. There were no differences between groups for apical strain, strain rate, and systolic tissue velocity.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates that right ventricular strain and strain rate were lower in patients with left ventricular inferior wall myocardial infarction with, compared to without, right ventricular infarction.