Impact of transducer frequency setting on speckle tracking measures

  • Flemming Javier Olsen
  • Jesper Hastrup Svendsen
  • Lars Køber
  • Søren Højberg
  • Ketil Haugan
  • Jan Skov Jensen
  • Tor Biering-Sørensen
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Speckle tracking echocardiography is an emerging technique, which is currently being included in clinical guidelines. We sought to investigate the impact of transducer frequency settings on speckle tracking derived measures. The study comprised of 22 subjects prospectively enrolled for a randomized controlled trial (LOOP-study, Clinicaltrials.gov:NCT02036450). Patients were above 70 years of age with increased risk of stroke, and had an echocardiogram performed, which included focused images of the left ventricle. Focused images were obtained with the transducer frequency set at both 1.7/3.3 and 1.5/3.0 MHz. The images were obtained immediately after each other at the exact same position for the two settings. Speckle tracking was performed in three apical projections, allowing for acquisition of layered global longitudinal strain (GLS) and strain rate measures. Concordance between the frequency settings was tested for endo-, mid-, and epicardial GLS and strain rates by coefficients of variation, bias coefficients and visually displayed by Bland–Altman plots. Bland–Altman plots did not reveal any significant over- or underestimation of any speckle tracking measure. Bias coefficients showed that none of the measurements differed significantly between the two settings (bias for GLSendo = − 0.07 ± 2.94, p = 0.91; GLSmid = 0.02 ± 2.70, p = 0.98, GLSepi = 0.07 ± 2.53, p = 0.90). Coefficients of variation were as follows: GLSendo = 15.11%, GLSmid = 15.28%, GLSepi = 17.26%, systolic strain rate = 15.66%, early diastolic strain rate = 38.46%, late diastolic strain rate = 11%. Changing between transducer frequency settings does not systematically derange speckle tracking measures. One can safely reduce the transducer frequency without compromising the validity of speckle tracking derived measures.

Keywords

Echocardiography Speckle tracking Strain Transducer frequency 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

Flemming J. Olsen was funded by a scholarship grant from the Herlev & Gentofte Hospital’s Research Council. The LOOP study has received funding from the Innovation Fund Denmark (Grant Number 12-135225), the Research Foundation for the Capital Region of Denmark, the Danish Heart Foundation (Grant Number 11-04-R83-A3363-22625), Aalborg University Talent Management Programme, the Arvid Nielsson Foundation and an unrestricted research grant from Medtronic Bakken Research Center B.V. The sponsor had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the manuscript.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Cardiology, Herlev & Gentofte HospitalUniversity of CopenhagenHellerupDenmark
  2. 2.Department of Cardiology, RigshospitaletUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark
  3. 3.Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical SciencesUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark
  4. 4.Department of Cardiology, Bispebjerg HospitalUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark
  5. 5.Department of Cardiology, Roskilde HospitalUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark

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