Pulsed Doppler measurement of transmitral flow has been widely used to assess the left ventricular relaxation abnormality noninvasively in patients with failing heart. However pulsed Doppler-derived indices are affected by multiple factors, including active relaxation and distensibility of the left ventricle, the pressure gradient between the left ventricle and atrium, and altered loading condition. The purpose of this study is to assess the role of new index, the rate of propagation of left ventricular peak filling flow in early diastole using color M-mode Doppler for the evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function.

The study group comprised 41 patients(24 males, 17 felames, mean age: 56±12). The clinical diagnosis were angina pectoris 32, acute myocardial infarction 3, peripheral arterial obstructive disease 2 and atypical chest pain 4. We measured rate of propagation(ROP) and propagation ratio of peak early filling flow by color M-mode Doppler echocardiography using baseline shifted first aliasing limit technique and compared with pulsed Doppler measurements of transmitral flow.

1) Pulsed Doppler-derived indices of mitral flows were as below. The maximal velocity of E wave was 65.4±21.3cm/sec in control group, 54.3±7.9cm/sec in group I patients(p<0.05 versus control group) and 70.9±15.2cm/sec in group II patients(p<0.01 versus group I). The maximal velocity of A wave was 70.0±20.9cm/sec in control group, 78.6±3.8cm/sec in group I patients and 60.0±14.1cm/sec in group II patients(p<0.01 versus group I). The E/A ratio was 1.01±0.42 in control group, 0.69±0.10 in group I patients(p<0.05 versus control group) and 1.19±0.16 in group II patients(p<0.01 versus group I). The deceleration time was 166.7±36.3msec in control group, 202.9±17.0msec in group I patients(p<0.01 versus control group) and 160.0±10.0msec in group II patients(p<0.01) versus group I). 2) The rate of propagation was 145.0±83.4cm/sec in control group, 50.0±13.2cm/sec in group I patients(p<0.01 versus control group) and 59.9±26.0cm/sec in group II patients(p<0.01 versus control group). 3) The propagation ratio was 2.27±1.29cm/sec in control group, 0.93±0.25cm/sec in group I patients(p<0.05 versus control group) and 0.86±0.36cm/sec in group II patients(p<0.01 versus control group).

Analysis of filling flow propagation by color M-mode Doppler is an easy and noninvasive method for evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function and may be an additional tool to pulsed Doppler measurement of transmitral flow, especially in differentiation between normal and pseudonormal, but care must be taken in interpretation because of overlapping of values.