Cardiac cyclic variation of integrated backscatter in hypertension and dialysis patients

BACKGROUND: Cyclic variation of myocardial-integrated backscatter (CV-IB) offers a non-invasive myocardial contractile performance assessment. There is limited data concerning CV-IB in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. METHODS: Forty essential hypertensive (EH) patients (mean age 51+/-8 yrs) and 24 ESRD patients (mean age 49+/-14 yrs) were compared to 10 healthy controls (mean age 45+/-10 yrs). A 2D-Doppler echocardiography with digitized imaging was performed to characterize myocardial ultrasonic tissue by CV-IB between systole and diastole at the interventricular septum (IVS) and left ventricular (LV) posterior wall (PW). RESULTS: There was no significant difference between age and sex among groups. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures (BP) were both higher in EH patients (157/96 mmHg in EH, 129/81 mmHg in ESRD and 115/77 mmHg in controls, p<0.001). Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was higher in EH and ESRD patients than in controls (respectively, 119+/-37, 130+/-46, 87+/-12 g/m2, p<0.05), while there was no significant difference found between EH and ESRD patients. EH patient CV-IB values were significantly lower than in ESRD patients and controls (respectively, 6.9+/-1.6, 8.6+/-0.7, 10.6+/-1.1 dB, p<0.001 for IVS, 7.7+/-1.3, 8.7+/-0.8, 10.4+/-1.1 dB, p<0.001 for PW). CV-IB for PW and IVS were significantly lower in ESRD patients than in controls (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: CV-IB can offer useful parameters for myocardial structure in EH and ESRD patients. Further studies are needed to clarify CV-IB in ESRD patients.