Non-invasive Assessment of Left Ventricular End-diastolic Function. Usefulness of Apexcardiographic A-wave Peak Time (a New Parameter) in Correlation with Echocardiographic Indices
An investigation was conducted on the relationships between A /E-O ratio (height of A-wave expressed as a percentage of total systolic deflection of the apexcardiogram) and A-wave peak time (time from onset to peak of A-wave on apexcardiogram) and echocardiographic left ventricular end-diastolic indices in various left ventricular diseases (hypertension, ischemic heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and congestive cardiomyopathy). Majority of patients with ischemic heart disease (myocardial infarction showing abnormal wall motion) and with congestive cardiomyopathy had a prolonged A-wave peak time (round A-wave) in addition to a high A/E-O ratio. In contrast, most of the patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and those with hypertension had a normal A-wave peak time (peaked A-wave) and a high A/E-O ratio. Therefore, a concomitant use of this new parameter (A-wave peak time) with conventional A/E-O ratio proved to be a valuable way of evaluating severity of hemodynamic alterations in left ventricular disorders.
