Regional left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in patients with apical hypertrophy

: Differences in cardiac function between the apical and the chordal parts of the left ventricle in apical hypertrophy (APH) were investigated by M-mode echocardiography. The subjects consisted of 10 patients with APH (APH Group) and 10 normal controls (N Group). The M-mode echocardiograms of the interventricular septum (IVS) and left ventricular posterior wall (LVPW), both in the apical and chordal parts were simultaneously recorded with the electrocardiogram and phonocardiogram. There were no significant differences in the blood pressures, heart rates, left ventricular end-diastolic internal diameters, and left ventricular end-systolic internal diameters between the APH Group and the N Group. The hypertrophy was localized to the IVS and LVPW of the apical part in the APH Group. In the chordal part, there were no significant differences in the peak negative dD/dt (-dD/dt) and the time to the peak filling rate (TPFR) between the APH Group and N Group. In the apical part, -dD/dt of the APH Group tended to increase compared with that of the N Group. The TPFR of the APH Group was significantly longer than that of the N Group (APH Group: 167 +- 33 msec and N Group: 126 +- 19 msec, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)