Evaluating the Association Between the Three Different Ejection Fraction Measurement Techniques and Left Ventricle Global Strain

Objective: The prognosis of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is directly associated with systolic function based on the measurement of ejection fraction (EF), and many studies have indicated that the left ventricular global strain (LVGS) provides better predictivity than the EF measurement in the diagnosis, prognosis, survival, and CVD staging. However, these studies did not investigate the correlation between the EF measurement and the LVGS parameters, or which parameters are better correlated with LVGS, but we analyzed the association between three EF measurement methods and LVGS. Materials and Methods: This study included 62 patients that applied to the clinic between October 2015 and March 2016. An echocardiography examination of these patients was performed. The exclusion criteria were atrial fibrillation and suboptimal image quality. Results: Sixty-two patients (the average age 61.0 +/- 12.6 years; 56% male and 44% female) were enrolled in the study. A statistically significant association was found between the visual EF and Simpson EF measurements and the LVGS parameters (p<0.001). While the visual EF was moderately correlated with the LVGS parameters (r=0.44), there was a good correlation between the Simpson EF and the LVGS parameters (r=0.710). Conclusion: In this study, we demonstrate that the Simpson's rule LVEF correlates better with LVGS than the Teicholtz method or visual EF and that it has a better area under the curve value for determining an abnormal LVGS. Therefore, we recommend the use of the Simpson EF for the EF measurement that has a better correlation with the LVGS values in the patients whose ventricle functions should be evaluated.