Cardiac Dysfunction Identified by Strain Echocardiography Is Associated With Illness Severity in Pediatric Sepsis

OBJECTIVES: Sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction has been associated with illness severity and mortality in pediatrics. Although early sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction diagnosis could aid in hemodynamic management, current echocardiographic metrics for assessing biventricular function are limited in detecting early impairment. Strain echocardiography is a validated quantitative measure that can detect subtle perturbations in left ventricular and right ventricular function. This investigation evaluates the utility of strain echocardiography in pediatric sepsis and compares with to conventional methods. DESIGN: Retrospective, observational study comparing left ventricular and right ventricular strain. Strain was compared with ejection fraction and fractional shortening and established sepsis severity of illness markers. SETTING: Tertiary care medical-surgical PICU from July 2013 to January 2018. PATIENTS: Seventy-nine septic children and 28 healthy controls. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Compared with healthy controls, patients with severe sepsis demonstrated abnormal left ventricular strain (left ventricular longitudinal strain: -13.0% +/- 0.72; p = 0.04 and left ventricular circumferential strain: -16.5% +/- 0.99; p = 0.046) and right ventricular (right ventricular longitudinal strain = -14.3% +/- 6.3; p < 0.01) despite normal fractional shortening (36.0% +/- 1.6 vs 38.1% +/- 1.1; p = 0.5129) and ejection fraction (60.7% +/- 2.2 vs 65.3% +/- 1.5; p = 0.33). There was significant association between depressed left ventricular longitudinal strain and increased Vasotrope-Inotrope Score (r = 0.52; p = 0.034). Worsening left ventricular circumferential strain was correlated with higher lactate (r = 0.31; p = 0.03) and higher Pediatric Risk of Mortality-III score (r = 0.39; p < 0.01). Depressed right ventricular longitudinal strain was associated with elevated pediatric multiple organ dysfunction score (r = 0.44; p < 0.01) CONCLUSIONS:: Compared with healthy children, pediatric septic patients demonstrated abnormal left ventricular and right ventricular strain concerning for early signs of cardiac dysfunction. This was despite having normal ejection fraction and fractional shortening. Abnormal strain was associated with abnormal severity of illness markers. Strain echocardiography may have utility as an early indicator of sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction in pediatric sepsis.