Coronary tortuosity affects left ventricular myocardial functions: a 3D-speckle tracking echocardiography study

• DOI: 10.1007/s10554-019-01760-0
• Publication Date: 2020-01-08T09:02:42Z
• Authors: Mustafa Dogdus; Emre Demir; Cahide Soydas Cinar; Cemil Gurgun
• Keywords: Global longitudinal strain; Male; Systole; Coronary artery tortuosity; Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional; Coronary Angiography; Ventricular Function, Left; Ventricular Dysfunction, Left; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Diastole; Predictive Value of Tests; Subclinical left ventricular dysfunction; 3D-speckle tracking echocardiography; Humans; Aged; Stroke Volume; Middle Aged; Coronary Vessels; 3. Good health; Cross-Sectional Studies; Case-Control Studies; Asymptomatic Diseases; Female

Coronary artery tortuosity (CAT) is a common finding in coronary angiography, and is defined as three fixed bends during both systole and diastole in at least one epicardial coronary artery, with each bend showing a 45° change in vessel direction. The impact of CAT on the myocardial deformation has not been completely evaluated using 3D-STE. As a result of this, we aimed to assess the effects of CAT on LV functions using 3D-STE in the present study. Eighty-two patients with CAT and 80 age- and gender-matched controls who proved to have normal coronary angiograms were enrolled into the study. 3D-STE was performed and LV-GLS, LV-GCS, LV-GAS, and LV-GRS were obtained for every patient after coronary angiography. The LV-GLS was significantly depressed in the CAT ( +) group than in the control group (p = 0.001). ROC analysis was performed to find out ideal LV-GLS cut off value to predict the presence of CAT. A LV-GLS value of > - 17 has 81.3% sensitivity, 56.7% specificity to detect the presence of CAT. The present study is the first to focus on the assessing LV myocardial functions in patients with CAT by 3D-STE. CAT has a considerable negative effect on LV myocardial longitudinal deformation as evaluated by 3D strain parameters. Our results support that patients with CAT may have subclinical LV longitudinal deformation abnormalities even though they are apparently healthy.