Speckle-Tracking Echocardiographic Layer-Specific Strain Analysis on Subclinical Left Ventricular Dysfunction in Patients With Primary Aldosteronism

BACKGROUND: Primary aldosteronism (PA) may cause myocardial injury. We investigated myocardial dysfunction using speckle-tracking echocardiographic (STE) layer-specific strain in patients with PA. METHODS: Our study included 62 patients with PA (33 aldosterone-producing adenoma [APA] and 29 idiopathic hyperaldosteronism [IHA]) and 30 patients with primary hypertension. STE was acquired using the GE Vivid E9 equipment. The longitudinal (LS) and circumferential (CS) layer-specific strains of the endocardium, midmyocardium, and epicardium (LSendo, LSmid, LSepi, CSendo, CSmid, and CSepi) were obtained using the EchoPAC BT13 workstation. RESULTS: Patients with APA, compared with those with primary hypertension and IHA, had a significantly (P 0.05). Layer-specific strain was significantly correlated with plasma aldosterone concentration for all echocardiographic parameters (r = -0.69 to -0.53, P < 0.001) in all 3 groups. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with PA, especially APA, had impaired regional systolic function with myocardial deformation changes at similar levels of blood pressure, probably because of elevated plasma aldosterone concentration.