Applicability of the load dynamometric test and speckle tracking echocardiography in the heart failure with preserved ejection fraction diagnosis

Aim    To compare myocardial deformation properties in patients with heart failure (HF) with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (HFpEF) and in healthy volunteers at rest and during a dynamometric test; to determine a possibility of using this method for diagnosing HSpEF.
Material and methods    STE with simultaneous electrocardiogram recording was performed for patients with HSpEF and healthy volunteers of the control group at rest and during a dynamometric test. The subjects were instructed to maintain a submaximal compression of a hand dynamometer for 3 min and to apply a maximum effort during the last 30 sec while continuing to breathe regularly. Concentrations of markers for myocardial injury and HF were measured. Statistical analytical methods are provided in Results. For other calculations, a MS Office (Microsoft Excel) application software package was used.
Results    Differences in myocardial deformation variables between healthy volunteers and HF patients were more obvious during exercise, including changes of the variables from the resting values. As compared with the control group, patients with HFpEF had considerable deviations of the heart rate and the left ventricular global longitudinal strain (GLSLV) (significance of differences calculated with ANOVA was higher than 95% and 80%; p<0.05 and p<0.2, respectively). Patients with a significant change in the strain, regardless of the direction of the change, showed a decrease in the left ventricular ejection fraction (EFLV) during the test with a probability above 95% according to the Fischer test. Also, patients with HFpEF had higher concentrations of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide and symptoms of HF. Compared to evaluation of overall GLSLV, calculation of deformation variables by segment detected more differences between patients with HFpEF and control subjects.
Conclusion    STE with a dynamometric test is an effective, noninvasive method for diagnosing HFpEF that is easy to perform in the outpatient conditions.

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