Pearson’s correlation analysis was utilized to assess the relationships between pairs of echocardiographic parameters. Intraobserver
and interobserver variability of LV twist and strain were tested in 15 patients using the speckle tracking imaging method. Intraobserver and interobserver variability were tested by the Bland-Altman method and expressed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical as the mean ± standard deviation of the find more absolute differences between the two measurements divided by the mean value (%). A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Clinical characteristics and echocardiographic variables in the overall 70 hypertensive patients are summarized in Table 1. The age was 48 ± 14 years, and 39 (56%) were male. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure was 152 ± 15 mmHg and 92 ± 11 mmHg, respectively. PWV
was 1578 ± 274 cm/s. PWV significantly correlated with age (r = 0.682, p < 0.001), body mass index (r = -0.330, p = 0.005), systolic blood pressure (r = 0.386, p Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical = 0.001) and pulse pressure (r = 0.509, p < 0.001), septal E' velocity (r = -0.570, p < 0.001), E/A ratio Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (r = -0.414, p < 0.001) and E/E' ratio (r = 0.589, p < 0.001) (Table 2). Table 1 Clinical data and conventional echocardiographic measurements Table 2 Correlation between clinical data, and conventional echocardiographic measurements Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and brachial-ankle PWV The parameters of regional myocardial function obtained by the speckle tracking method are shown in Table 3. PWV correlated with global longitudinal ε (r = 0.300, p = 0.012). Moreover, PWV correlated with SRE (r = -0.479, p < 0.001), an indicator of abnormal relaxation on the
longitudinal global SR curve (Table 4). Fig. 1 demonstrated the relation of PWV to the relaxation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical abnormality, filling pressure, and regional myocardial function of LV. PWV was also correlated with basal rotation (r = -0.301, p = 0.011) and basal-to-apical twist (r = -0.256, p = 0.032), while it did not correlate with apical rotation (r = 0.082, p = 0.498) (Fig. 2A). Multivariate regression analysis showed that these age, body mass index, systolic blood pressure and basal to apical twist were independently related to brachial-ankle PWV (Table 5). Fig. 1 Linear correlation of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity with (A) the tissue Doppler parameter and (B) longitudinal peak systolic strain, and longitudinal early diastolic strain rate. PWV: brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity, E’: early diastolic annulus … Fig. 2 Relationship between brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity and left ventricular rotation, and twist. A: Linear correlation of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity with left ventricular rotation and twist. B: Changes in apical rotation and basal to apical twist …