Introduction:

Left atrial strain (LAS) has been related to the grade of diastolic dysfunction. However, only a few reports exist about its relationship among patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD).

Objective:

To compare the LAS value among patients with normal and abnormal diastolic function.

Material and methods:

A cross-sectional, retrospective, observational, analytic, single-center study (Hospital Civil de Guadalajara). All patients with an ischemic heart disease diagnosis (acute and chronic) were included between June 2017 and July 2019.

Results:

Two hundred forty-eight patients were included. Among the study population, 58% had diastolic dysfunction. LAS was lower in the diastolic dysfunction group on the reservoir (39% vs 23%), conduit (22 vs 11%) and pump phases (16 vs 23%). As diastolic dysfunction progressed, the reservoir (39 vs 30% vs 22 vs 16%) and conduit (22 vs 12% vs 12 vs 9%) phases of left atrial strain decreased, and during the pump phase an improvement was noticed between grade 1 diastolic dysfunction compared with a normal diastolic function (16 vs 18% vs 11 vs 6%). We used the ROC curve to determine the cut-off value to predict diastolic dysfunction, and the cut-off was < 31.6%. The LAS also correlated with proBNP concentrations.

Conclusion:

As diastolic dysfunction progress, the three phases of LAS present a linear decline in IHD.