Conventional Pulsed Wave Doppler in Assessment of Left and Right Ventricular Systolic and Diastolic Function

Only 10% of echocardiographs in Russia are equipped with spectral tissue Doppler (TDI) and 100% with conventional pulsed wave Doppler (PW). Nowadays it is strongly recommended to use TDI for assessment of left and right ventricular systolic and diastolic function. We decided to analyze if PW can be used for these purposes instead of TDI. 16 subjects (mean age 53.8 ± 17.8 years) underwent dopplerechocardiographic exam. TDI and PW tracings were obtained from lateral border of mitral and tricuspid annulus. During registration of PW Doppler gain was significantly diminished. Correlations between homological components of TDI and PW spectrograms (left and right side systolic velocity parameters-sl’ and sl, sr’ and sr; early diastolic velocity parameters-el’ and el, er’ and er) were evaluated. In all cases registered PW curve was clear cut. High levels of correlation were found between sl’ and sl (r=.79, p = .0002), el’ and el (r=.82, p = .0001), er’ and er (r=.90, p = .000002), moderate-between sr’ and sr (r=.63, p = .008). Significant correlations between homological components of TDI and PW were obtained. It means that PW can be used for assessment of left and right ventricular systolic and diastolic function in cases when TDI is unavailable.