Assessment of left ventricular deformation in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus by cardiac magnetic resonance tissue tracking.

To quantify the global and regional left ventricular (LV) myocardial strain in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) tissue-tracking techniques and to determine the ability of myocardial strain parameters to assessment the LV deformation. Our study included 98 adult T2DM patients (preserved LV ejection fraction [LVEF], 72; reduced LVEF, 26) and 35 healthy controls. Conventional LV function, volume-time curve parameters and LV remodeling index were measured using CMR. Global and regional LV myocardial strain parameters were measured using CMR tissue tracking and compared between the different sub-groups. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to assess the diagnostic accuracy. Regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between strain parameters and the LV remodeling index. The results show that global radial peak strain (PS) and circumferential PS were not significantly different between the preserved-LVEF group and control group (P > 0.05). However, longitudinal PS was significantly lower in the preserved-LVEF group than in the control group (P = 0.005). Multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses showed that global longitudinal PS was independently associated (ß = 0.385, P < 0.001) with the LV remodeling index. In conclusion, early quantitative evaluation of cardiac deformation can be successfully performed using CMR tissue tracking in T2DM patients. In addition, global longitudinal PS can complement LVEF in the assessment of cardiac function.

Assessment of tetralogy of Fallot-associated congenital extracardiac vascular anomalies in pediatric patients using low-dose dual-source computed tomography.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the diagnostic value of dual-source computed tomography (DSCT) in the evaluation of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF)-associated extracardiac vascular abnormalities in pediatric patients compared with transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). METHODS: One hundred and twenty-three pediatric patients diagnosed with TOF were included in this retrospective study. All patients underwent DSCT and TTE preoperatively. All associated extracardiac vascular abnormalities and their percentages were recorded. The diagnostic performances of DSCT and TTE were compared based on the surgical results. The image quality of DSCT was rated, and the effective radiation dose (ED) was calculated. RESULTS: A total of 159 associated extracardiac vascular deformities were confirmed by surgery. Patent ductus arteriosus (36, 22.64%), right-sided aortic arch (29, 18.24%), and pulmonary valve stenosis (23, 14.47%) were the most common associated extracardiac vascular abnormalities. DSCT was superior to TTE in demonstrating associated extracardiac anomalies (diagnostic accuracy: 99.13% vs. 97.39%; sensitivity: 92.45% vs. 77.07%; specificity: 99.81% vs. 99.42%). The agreement on grading the image quality of DSCT was excellent (κ = 0.80), and the mean score of the image quality was 3.39 ± 0.50. The mean ED of DSCT was 0.86 ± 0.47 mSv. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to TTE, low-dose DSCT has high diagnostic accuracy in the depiction of associated extracardiac vascular anomalies in pediatric patients with TOF, and could provide more morphological details for surgeons.