Assessment of the left atrial longitudinal myocardial function by the strain and strain rate echocardiography in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis

Aim: To evaluate the regional left atrial (LA) myocardial functions and time to peak deformations by the longitudinal strain (S) and strain rate (Sr) echocardiography in isolated mitral stenosis (MS) patients for 3 LA periods (contractile, reservoir, and conduit periods).Materials and methods: Included in the study were 30 MS patients and 30 healthy controls. Longitudinal peak S and Sr indices, time to peak S and time to peak Sr, and systolic and diastolic velocities were measured from the color Doppler myocardial imaging data, for each LA period.Results: For all 3 periods, all of the segment S values and most of the segment Sr values were significantly lower in the patients than in the controls (P 0.0001 and P 0.05, respectively). There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of velocities. Time to peak S in the contractile and conduit periods was significantly higher in the patients than in the controls, in most of the segments (P 0.05). Time to peak Sr was significantly higher in the patients than in the controls, in all of the periods in all of the segments (P 0.05) except for mid-septal segments.Conclusion: This study demonstrated that LA longitudinal myocardial functions were impaired in MS patients with S/ Sr echocardiography. Our study is the first to demonstrate prolonged time to peak S/Sr of the LA in rheumatic MS. This condition might be an additional factor in the deterioration of regional LA myocardial function in MS patients.