Cardiac cyclic variation of integrated backscatter in hypertension and dialysis patients.

BACKGROUND

Cyclic variation of myocardial-integrated backscatter (CV-IB) offers a non-invasive myocardial contractile performance assessment. There is limited data concerning CV-IB in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients.

METHODS

Forty essential hypertensive (EH) patients (mean age 51+/-8 yrs) and 24 ESRD patients (mean age 49+/-14 yrs) were compared to 10 healthy controls (mean age 45+/-10 yrs). A 2D-Doppler echocardiography with digitized imaging was performed to characterize myocardial ultrasonic tissue by CV-IB between systole and diastole at the interventricular septum (IVS) and left ventricular (LV) posterior wall (PW).

RESULTS

There was no significant difference between age and sex among groups. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures (BP) were both higher in EH patients (157/96 mmHg in EH, 129/81 mmHg in ESRD and 115/77 mmHg in controls, p<0.001). Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was higher in EH and ESRD patients than in controls (respectively, 119+/-37, 130+/-46, 87+/-12 g/m2, p<0.05), while there was no significant difference found between EH and ESRD patients. EH patient CV-IB values were significantly lower than in ESRD patients and controls (respectively, 6.9+/-1.6, 8.6+/-0.7, 10.6+/-1.1 dB, p<0.001 for IVS, 7.7+/-1.3, 8.7+/-0.8, 10.4+/-1.1 dB, p<0.001 for PW). CV-IB for PW and IVS were significantly lower in ESRD patients than in controls (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

CV-IB can offer useful parameters for myocardial structure in EH and ESRD patients. Further studies are needed to clarify CV-IB in ESRD patients.