Doppler tissue evaluation of intra-atrial and interatrial electromechanical delay and comparison with P-wave dispersion in patients with mitral stenosis.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of our study was to: (1) measure atrial electromechanical delay in patients with mitral stenosis (MS) and in a control group; (2) find the echocardiographic parameters that affect atrial electromechanical delay; and (3) examine the correlation between atrial electromechanical delay and P-wave dispersion (PWD).

METHODS

A total of 25 patients with pure MS (age 43 +/- 10 years; 18 women, 7 men) and 16 control subjects (age 41 +/- 8 years; 9 women, 7 men) were studied. Interatrial and intra-atrial electromechanical delay was measured with Doppler tissue echocardiography. From the 12-lead electrocardiograms, PWD was calculated.

RESULTS

Interatrial electromechanical delay was 71.2 +/- 33 in the MS group and 40.5 +/- 21.0 in the control group (P = .01). In the MS group, PWD was 50 +/- 7 and in the control group it was 29 +/- 5 (P = .03). A positive correlation was detected between interatrial electromechanical delay and PWD (r = 0.6, P = .03).

CONCLUSION

This study shows that interatrial electromechanical delay gets longer in MS and is correlated with PWD. Atrial electromechanical delay is related with left atrial size but not with severity of MS.