Multilayer longitudinal strain can help predict the development of no-reflow in patients with acute coronary syndrome without ST elevation

Acute coronary syndrome versus acute myocarditis in young adults–value of speckle tracking echocardiography

Purpose

Comparing myocarditis with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS)-like presentation and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) poses an important clinical challenge. The purpose of the study was to investigate the diagnostic value of the clinical, laboratory and especially echocardiographic characteristics including speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) of patients with ACS-like myocarditis and AMI.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective analysis comparing 69 symptomatic patients (≤ 45 years old), hospitalized at the Department of Interventional Cardiology (Medical University of Lodz, Poland) between April 2014 and June 2021 with an initial diagnosis of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

Results

37 patients with the cardiac magnetic resonance–confirmed acute myocarditis and 32 patients diagnosed with AMI based on the clinical presentation, electrocardiogram and the presence of a culprit lesion on the coronary angiography were analysed including echocardiography parameters. On STE analysis an average global longitudinal (GLS), radial and circumferential strain including three—layers observation were significantly lower (absolute value) in patients with AMI versus acute myocarditis (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in Endo/Epi ratio (p = 0.144) between the groups. An average GLS < (-17.5) represented the optimal cut-off value for the myocarditis diagnosis.

Conclusion

In patients with AMI a significant reduction of global and three-layers strains compared to patients with myocarditis was detected. Furthermore, our analysis also confirmed the discriminative pattern of myocardial injury between the groups.

Machine learning to predict no reflow and in-hospital mortality in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction that underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention

Background

The machine learning algorithm (MLA) was implemented to establish an optimal model to predict the no reflow (NR) process and in-hospital death that occurred in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI).

Methods

The data were obtained retrospectively from 854 STEMI patients who underwent pPCI. MLA was applied to predict the potential NR phenomenon and confirm the in-hospital mortality. A random sampling method was used to split the data into the training (66.7%) and testing (33.3%) sets. The final results were an average of 10 repeated procedures. The area under the curve (AUC) and the associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the receiver operator characteristic were measured.

Results

A random forest algorithm (RAN) had optimal discrimination for the NR phenomenon with an AUC of 0.7891 (95% CI: 0.7093–0.8688) compared with 0.6437 (95% CI: 0.5506–0.7368) for the decision tree (CTREE), 0.7488 (95% CI: 0.6613–0.8363) for the support vector machine (SVM), and 0.681 (95% CI: 0.5767–0.7854) for the neural network algorithm (NNET). The optimal RAN AUC for in-hospital mortality was 0.9273 (95% CI: 0.8819–0.9728), for SVM, 0.8935 (95% CI: 0.826–0.9611); NNET, 0.7756 (95% CI: 0.6559–0.8952); and CTREE, 0.7885 (95% CI: 0.6738–0.9033).

Conclusions

The MLA had a relatively higher performance when evaluating the NR risk and in-hospital mortality in patients with STEMI who underwent pPCI and could be utilized in clinical decision making.

Application of Layered Strain Technique in NSTE-ACS

Background

To explore the application value of layered strain technique in non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS).

Methods

120 patients with suspected NSTE-ACS undergoing coronary angiography in our hospital from December 2018 to December 2019 were prospectively selected. According to the results of coronary angiography, the patients were divided into the significant CAD group and the nonsignificant CAD group. Echocardiography was performed 1-2 hours before invasive coronary angiography. The long axis and circumferential strain of the endocardium, myocardial layer, and epicardium were evaluated by the layered strain technique. The territorial longitudinal strain (TLS), the global longitudinal strain (GLS) of the three myocardial layers, and the global circumferential strain (GCS) were calculated based on the perfusion region of the three coronary arteries and the 17-segment model of the left ventricle. The primary endopoints were TLS and GCS of the three-layer myocardium.

Results

Compared with the nonsignificant CAD patients, the TLS and GCS of three-layer myocardium in significant CAD patients were decreased, especially in the endocardium. The absolute values of TLS and GCS of the endocardium and epicardium in significant CAD patients were lower than those in nonsignificant CAD patients. This indicates a significant decrease in endocardial function. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that endocardial TLS was superior to LVEF, Troponin I (TnI), and other strain parameters in evaluating the extent of coronary lesions.

Conclusions

The layered strain technique of 2D-STE can evaluate the severity of coronary lesions in patients with NSTE-ACS, and for significant CAD patients, endocardial function is significantly more impaired than epicardial function.