Evaluation of Left Ventricular Function by Tissue Doppler and Speckle-Derived Strain Rate Echocardiography after Percutaneous Ductus Closure

The aim of this study was to evaluate the left ventricular systolic and diastolic function before and after transcatheter percutaneous patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) closure. 21 children (age >6 months old) diagnosed with hemodynamically significant PDA underwent percutaneous PDA closure. Conventional, Doppler and tissue Doppler imaging and speckled-derived strain rate echocardiography were done at pre-closure, 1 day (early) and 1 month (late) post-closure. Mean age of the patients (female/male: 1.3) was 17.54 ± 24.7 months with the mean PDA diameter of 3.6 ± 0.8 mm. Systolic measures (ejection fraction, shortening fraction) reduced significantly early after PDA closure (P < 0.05). After 1 month, both improved significantly; ultimately, after 1 month no change was observed in systolic function measures compared with the pre-closure status. Early and late diastolic flow velocities of mitral (E _M and A _M) reduced considerably in early and late post-closure time (P < 0.05). Both early tissue Doppler early velocity of lateral mitral annulus (E′_M) and early to late velocity ratio (E′_M/A′_M) of lateral mitral annulus decreased significantly (P = 0.02) in early post-closure. After 1 month, E′_M increased considerably. (P = 0.01) but E′_M/A′_M had an insignificant rise (P > 0.05). E _M/E′_M ratio did not change in early post-closure but it had a considerable reduction in the subsequent month compared with the pre- and early post-closure (P < 0.001 for both occasions). Global and segmental longitudinal strain measures reduced significantly early after PDA closure (P < 0.05) but it improved remarkably in the subsequent month. Transcatheter PDA closure causes a significant decrease in left ventricular performance early after PDA closure which recovers completely within 1 month. Also PDA size can affect post-closure left ventricular function.