Assessment of Cardiac Function in Neonates by Using Tissue Doppler Imaging

Yoon, Hee Chul; Choe, Jae Hoon; Kim, Sun Young; Lee, In Kyu; Oh, Myung Ho

Abstract

PURPOSE
Tissue Doppler imaging(TDI) is recently being used for assessement of regional ventricular function in adults. However, data in neonates have not been established yet. The aim of this study is to establish reference values of TDI velocities and to investigate the effect of other factors on TDI velocites in the neonatal population. METHODS: Forty eight healthy neonates with anatomically normal hearts from July 2003 to August 2003 were enrolled. Blood was collected after 12 hours of birth and Troponin T(TnT) was measured. TDI of mitral and tricuspid annulus was obtained from apical four chamber views within three days. TDI measurements included peak early diastolic annular velocity, peak diastolic annular velocity with atrial contraction, peak systolic annular velocity and duration of systole. RESULTS: In neonates, peak systolic velocity and peak diastolic velocity were lower than those of children and adults. The ratio of peak early diastolic velocity to peak diastolic velocity with atrial contraction(e'/a') was lower compared with known data in children and adults. With faster heart rates, peak early diastolic velocity and peak systolic velocity of mitral septal annulus and peak early diastolic velocity of tricuspid lateral annulus were significantly increased. PFO, PDA and TR did not affect TDI parameters. CONCLUSION: Annular TDI parameters of neonates were different from those of children and adults. TDI is a simple, rapid tool for assessing global ventricular function and the data of this study can be used as reference values for ventricular dysfunction in the neonatal period.