2-Dimensional Speckle Tracking Echocardiography predicts severe coronary artery disease in women with normal left ventricular function: a case-control study

BACKGROUND Women who have coronary artery disease (CAD) often present with atypical symptoms that may lead to misdiagnosis. We assessed strain, systolic strain rate and left ventricular dyssynchrony with 2- dimensional- speckle tracking echocardiography to evaluate its use as a non-invasive method for detecting CAD in women with normal ejection fraction compared with healthy women controls with a normal angiogram. METHODS We included 35 women with CAD confirmed by coronary angiography and a positive exercise stress echocardiography and 35 women in a control group with a low pretest probability of CAD, normal angiogram and a normal stress echocardiography with normal EF. RESULTS Statistically significant 2D-STE findings for the CAD vs control groups were as follows for the mean of: global circumferential strain (CS) (-19.4% vs -22.4%, P = .02); global radial S (49% vs 34%, P = .03); global radial SR (2.4 s-1 vs 1.9 s-1, P = .05); global longitudinal LV S (GLS) (-14.3% vs -17.2%, P < .001). For mechanical dyssynchrony, SD of the GLS time-to-peak (TTP) was computed (99 vs 33 ms, P < .001). The receiver operating characteristic and area under the curve (AUC) were calculated. A cutoff value of 45 ms for 1 SD of the longitudinal S TTP had 97% sensitivity and 89% specificity (AUC, 0.96). GLS cutoff value of -15.87% had 71% sensitivity and 74% specificity; AUC, 0.74 in differentiating CAD and control groups. The combined GLS, CS, and SD of the longitudinal S TTP had an AUC of 0.96 (sensitivity 97%, specificity 86%). Interclass correlations of the GLS segment and GLS TTP measurements were 0.49 (95% CI, 0.227-0.868) and 0.74 (95% CI, 0.277-0.926), respectively. CONCLUSION In women with a normal echocardiogram and LVEF, CAD can be identified by dyssynchrony and abnormal strain values, as evidenced by 2D-STE.