Tissue doppler imaging: Current and potential clinical applications

Abstract

Tissue velocity imaging is another important development in the field of cardiac ultrasound and promises a number of applications to further extend the unique diagnostic role of echocardiography. Accurate quantification of global and particularly regional systolic LV function is closer than ever before, and the promise to improve the reproducibility and diagnostic value of stress echocardiography looks set to be realised, though full results from MYDISE are eagerly awaited. Tissue velocity imaging has enabled echocardiographic assessment of regional diastolic function which appears to be less limited by the compensatory changes in loading conditions that confound measurement of diastolic function by conventional echocardiographic methods. Tissue velocity imaging thus offers a practical clinical tool to differentiate physiological from pathological LV hypertrophy, and restrictive from constrictive physiology by refreshingly simple means. The development of the new datasets strain and strain rate promise to further enhance the value of echocardiography by overcoming some of the limitations of early TVI techniques; this should allow not only superior assessment of regional contractile function at rest and with stress, but also reliable identification of viable myocardium.