A novel speckle-tracking echocardiography parameter assessing left ventricular afterload

Sato K, Wildi K, Chan J, Palmieri C, Obonyo NG, Heinsar S, Liu K, Livingstone S, Sato N, Ainola C, Abbate G, Bouquet M, Wilson E, Passmore M, Hyslop K, Platts DG, Suen J, Bassi GL, Fraser JF. Eur J Clin Invest DOI 10.1111/eci.14106

Background: Left ventricular stroke work index (LVSWI) and afterload-related cardiac performance (ACP) consider left ventricular (LV) afterload and could be better prognosticators in septic cardiomyopathy. However, their invasive nature prevents their routine clinical applications. This study aimed to investigate (1) whether a proposed speckle-tracking echocardiography parameter, Pressure-Strain Product (PSP), can non-invasively predict catheter-based LVSWI, ACP and serum lactate in an ovine model of septic cardiomyopathy; and (2) whether PSP can distinguish the sub-phenotypes of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with or without sepsis-like conditions.