2-D Speckle tracking in the assessment of left and right ventricular functions in hemodialysis versus recently diagnosed uremic patients with preserved systolic function

Several studies have demonstrated that uremic patients who have preserved left ventricular (LV) systolic function could still have subtle systolic dysfunction. In our study, we assessed the right ventricular (RV) and LV myocardial functions measured by conventional echocardiography and two-dimensional (2D) longitudinal speckle-tracking in hemodialysis and non-dialysis recently diagnosed uremic patients. The study population consisted of 24 newly diagnosed uremic patients, 25 hemodialysis patients, and 20 healthy controls. The RV and LV longitudinal strains were significantly lower in patients than in controls (−9.6 vs. −15.3, P < 0.001 for RV and −11.3 vs. −14.8, p < 0.001 for LV). In the hemodialysis group, the RV longitudinal strain was significantly lower than in the non-dialysis group (p = 0.018). The RV longitudinal strain was correlated with hypertension and LV strain. The 2-D longitudinal speckle tracking can detect early ventricular (left and right) systolic dysfunction in patients with uremia in the presence of normal systolic function by conventional methods.