Quantitative assessment of ultrasonic myocardial reflectivity in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

C.N.R. Institute of Clinical Physiology, University of Pisa, Italy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between acoustic properties of the myocardium and magnitude of left ventricular hypertrophy in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. An on-line radio frequency analysis system was used to obtain quantitative operator-independent measurements of the integrated backscatter signal of the ventricular septum and posterior free wall in 25 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 25 normal age-matched control subjects. The integrated values of the radio frequency signal were normalized for the pericardial interface and expressed in percent. Tissue reflectivity was significantly increased in the hypertrophied ventricular septum, as well as in the nonhypertrophied posterior free wall, in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (58 +/- 15% and 37 +/- 12%, respectively) compared with values in normal subjects (33 +/- 10% and 18 +/- 5%, respectively; p less than 0.001). Furthermore, measurements of reflectivity of the septum or posterior free wall, or both, were beyond 2 SD of normal values in greater than 90% of the patients and were also abnormal in each of the five study patients who had only mild and localized left ventricular hypertrophy. No correlation was identified between myocardial tissue reflectivity and left ventricular wall thickness in the patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (correlation coefficient r = 0.4; p = NS). These findings demonstrate that myocardial reflectivity is abnormal in most patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and is largely independent of the magnitude of left ventricular hypertrophy. Moreover, quantitative analysis of ultrasonic reflectivity can differentiate patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from normal subjects independently of clinical features and conventional echocardiographic measurements.

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