Mitral flow velocity with Doppler technique has some limitaion in assessing diastolic dysfunction, especially because of the similarities of normal and pseudonormal mitral pattern. This study was performed to evaluate the usefulness of difference of deceleration time between early transmitral flow and pulmonary venous diastolic flow for differentiating pseudonormal pattern from normal in patients with hypertension.

Mitral and pulmonary venous flow velocities were recorded by thransthoracic pulsed Doppler ultrasound in 31 normal patients and 44 patients with hypertension, Nineteen patients of 44 patients with hypertension underwent cardiac catheterization and left ventricle pressures were measured.

The differences of deceleration time between early transmitral and pulmonary venous diastolic flow(ΔDT) in patients with hypertension who showed normal-like transmitral flow pattern(n=25), were greater than those in normal patients(34±31 ms vs 59±48 ms, p<0.05). Of patients with hypertension showing normal-like transmitral folw pattern, patients with prolonged ΔDT(≥70 ms, n=12) showed clinical and hemodynamic features by diastolic dysfunction in compared to patients with normal range ΔDT(<70 ms, n=13).

The difference of deceleration time between early transmitral and pulmonary venous diastolic flow may be useful index for detection pseudonormalization pattern in patients with hypertension.