Myocardial Work is Associated with Significant Left Ventricular Myocardial Fibrosis in Patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Late gadolinium enhancement on cardiac magnetic resonance adds prognostic information in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Whether Myocardial work, a new parameter on transthoracic echocardiographic, can be associated with significant fibrosis in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients is unknown. In a single-centre prospective evaluation of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients in whom transthoracic echocardiographic and cardiac magnetic resonance were performed, Myocardial work and related indices were calculated from global longitudinal strain and from estimated left ventricular pressure curves. The extent of late gadolinium enhancement was quantitatively assessed. Late gadolinium enhancement ≥ 15% was chosen to define significant fibrosis. Logistic regression analysis was used to find the variables associated with late gadolinium enhancement ≥ 15% and cut-off values were determined. Among the forty-six patients analysed mean age was 56 ± 15 years, 28 (61%) were male patients and the mean left ventricular ejection fraction by transthoracic echocardiographic was 67 ± 8%. Global constructive work and global work index were significantly related to late gadolinium enhancement ≥ 15%, while global longitudinal strain nearly reached statistical significance. A cut-off ≤ 1550 mmHg% of global constructive work was associated with significant fibrosis with a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 84%, while the best cut-off for global longitudinal strain (> - 15%) had a sensitivity of 67% and a specificity of 76%. In our study cohort, global constructive work was associated with significant left ventricular myocardial fibrosis in cardiac magnetic resonance, suggesting its utility in patients who may not be able to have a cardiac magnetic resonance study.