Measurements of left ventricular myocardial longitudinal systolic displacement using spectral and colour tissue Doppler: time for a reassessment?

BACKGROUND Echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular (LV) myocardial displacement may produce different results depending on the choice of employed modality and subjective adjustments during data acquisition and analysis. METHODS In this study, left ventricular longitudinal systolic displacement was quantified in 57 patients (31 women and 26 men, 50 +/- 16 years) using colour (colour TD) and spectral tissue Doppler (spectral TD) before and after temporal filtering (30 to 70 milliseconds in 20-millisecond steps) and changed offline gain saturation (0%, 50% and 100%), respectively. The results were compared with those obtained with anatomic M-mode. RESULTS Whereas only minor differences occurred between the results of colour TD and anatomic M-mode measurements, spectral TD significantly overestimated the results obtained with both these methods. However, the limits of agreement between the results produced by all three studied methods were not clinically acceptable in any of the cases. The spectral TD displacement values increased along with increasing offline gain saturation whereas the effect of temporal filtering on colour Doppler measurements was insignificant. CONCLUSION Measurements of LV myocardial longitudinal displacement employing spectral TD, colour TD or anatomic M-mode produce different results, thus discouraging interchangeable use of these modalities. Whereas the results of spectral TD measurements can be significantly altered by changing offline gain setting, the effect of temporal filtering on colour TD measurements is insignificant, a fact that increases clinical practicality of the latter method.