Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. May 26, 2018; 10(5): 35-37
Published online May 26, 2018. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v10.i5.35
Prognostic utility of global longitudinal strain in myocardial infarction
Andreas Schuster, Sören J Backhaus, Thomas Stiermaier, Ingo Eitel
Andreas Schuster, Department of Cardiology, Royal North Shore Hospital, the Kolling Institute, Nothern Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney 201101, Australia
Andreas Schuster, Sören J Backhaus, Department of Cardiology and Pneumology, University Hospital Goettingen, Göttingen 37075, Germany
Thomas Stiermaier, Ingo Eitel, Medical Clinic II (Cardiology/Angiology/Intensive Care Medicine), University Heart Center Lübeck, Lübeck 23538, Germany
Author contributions: All authors conceived the study and drafted as well as revised the Manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Andreas Schuster, MD, PhD, MBA, Professor, Department of Cardiology, Royal North Shore Hospital, the Kolling Institute, Nothern Clinical School, University of Sydney, 5th Floor, Acute Services Building Royal North Shore Hospital Reserve Road, Sydney 201101, Australia. andreas_schuster@gmx.net
Telephone: +612-9463-2506 Fax: +612-9463-2053
Received: February 4, 2018
Peer-review started: February 5, 2018
First decision: March 7, 2018
Revised: March 8, 2018
Accepted: April 22, 2018
Article in press: April 22, 2018
Published online: May 26, 2018
Processing time: 109 Days and 12.7 Hours
Abstract

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) represents the reference standard for cardiac morphology and function assessment. Since introduction in 2009, CMR feature tracking (CMR-FT) has become a frequently used tool in the assessment of myocardial deformation and wall motion on the basis of routinely acquired b-SSFP cine images. Extensive validation has led to excellent intra- and inter-observer as well as inter-study reproducibility. CMR-FT derived myocardial deformation indices such as left ventricular (LV) strain have been shown to be impaired in cardiac diseases such as cardiomyopathies as well as myocardial infarction. Although LV ejection fraction (LVEF) is the routinely and frequently utilized parameter for systolic myocardial function assessment and major adverse clinical event (MACE) prediction, it fails to assess regional differences. Recently, LV strain has emerged as a superior measure for risk assessment and MACE prediction as compared to the established markers e.g., LVEF. This editorial aims to elucidate current discussions in the field of strain assessment in myocardial infarction in the light of recent data from a large prospective multicentre CMR study.

Keywords: Feature tracking; Myocardial infarction; Cardiovascular magnetic resonance; Cardiomyopathy; Prognosis

Core tip: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance feature-tracking bears the potential for superior risk evaluation in infarct patients beyond established risk factors such as left ventricular ejection fraction. However, further clinical trials are inevitably needed to establish vendor independent thresholds for clinical routine use in various cardiac diseases.