Speckle tracking determination of mitral tissue annular displacement: comparison with strain and ejection fraction, and association with outcomes in haemodialysis patients

Abnormal Global longitudinal strain (GLS) and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) are established poor prognostic risk factors in haemodialysis patients. Tissue motion annular displacement of mitral valve annulus (TMAD), determined by speckle tracking echocardiography (STE), can be performed rapidly and is an indicator of systolic dysfunction, but has been less well explored. This study aims to compare TMAD with GLS and LVEF and its association with outcomes in haemodialysis patients. 198 haemodialysis patients (median age 64.2 years, 69 % men) had 2D echocardiography, with STE determined GLS and TMAD. Bland-Altman analysis and linear regression assessed relationship between GLS, LVEF and TMAD. Cox regression analysis investigated association of TMAD with mortality and cardiac events. TMAD had low inter- and intra-observer variability with small biases and narrow limits of agreement (LOA) (bias of -0.01 ± 1.32 (95 % LOA was -2.60 to 2.58) and -0.07 ± 1.27 (95 % LOA -2.55 to 2.41) respectively). There was a moderate negative correlation between GLS and LVEF (r = -0.383, p < 0.001) and a weak positive correlation between TMAD and LVEF (r = 0.248, p < 0.001). There was strong negative correlation of TMAD with GLS (r = -0.614, p < 0.001). In a multivariable Cox regression analysis, TMAD was not associated with mortality (HR 1.04, 95 % CI 0.91-1.19), cardiac death (HR 1.03, 95 % CI 0.80-1.32) or cardiac events (HR 0.91, 95 % CI 0.80-1.02). TMAD is a quick and reproducible alternative to GLS which may be very useful in cardiovascular risk assessment, but does not have the same prognostic value in HD patients as GLS.