Correlation Between Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction And Global Longitudinal Strain In Patients With Arterial Hypertension

Introduction. The prognosis in patients with structural cardiovascular disease depends largely on the quality of left ventricular function. The ejection fraction of the left ventricle (LVEF) is not a true value of myocardial contractility and depends a lot on preload and afterload conditions. The myocardial deformation (strain) would become a much earlier and sensitive indicator of heart failure. This study will look for discordance or mismatch that, at least temporarily, could be between the values of LVEF and global longitudinal strain (GLS), in patients affected by arterial hypertension.Objectives. a) To establish the incidence of discordance between LVEF values and the GLS value, assessed by echocardiography; b) to assess the concordance of the two parameters (LVEF and GLS) for the diagnosis of ventricular dysfunction; c) search the correlation coefficient (r) between LVEF and SLG.Methods. Prospective, descriptive and analytical study of hypertensive patients seen consecutively in the participating echocardiography laboratories with inclusion and exclusion criteria. The following variables were measured, average of 3 measurements according to the Recommendations for cardiac chamber quantification by echocardiography from the American Society of Echocardiography and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between LVEF and GLS was used and the concordance of the two diagnostic methods with the kappa coefficient was quantified.Results. Fifty-nine consecutive hypertensive patients were recruited in El Salvador and in the Dominican Republic, 33 male (55.9%) and 26 female (44.1%). The average age was 62.6 +/- 15.2 years. Thirty patients (50.8%) presented left ventricular hypertrophy. The average LVEF was 60.27%, and the average GLS was -18.44%. LVEF was reported abnormal in 10 patients (16.9%) versus 23 reports of subnormal GLS (39%). There was disagreement between LVEF and GLS in 22 patients (37.3%), only in 2 (9.1%) of these patients had normal geometry. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between LVEF and GLS was 0.475. The concordance of the two diagnostic methods with the kappa coefficient was quantified, finding a concordance of 0.154 (SE = 0.083), which for a confidence interval (CI) of 95% was classified as "poor".Conclusion. Cardiac hypertrophy poses a new scenario where the relationship between LVEF and contractility has been lost and a more direct measurement of the heart muscle's condition is necessary to anticipate more severe deterioration.