Speckle tracking echocardiography before and after Surgical pulmonary valve replacement in Tetralogy of Fallot patients: Can STE elucidate early left ventricular dysfunction?

Objectives: TOF is the most common cyanotic CHD. We investigated left ventricular (LV) function after surgical pulmonary valve replacement (sPVR) in patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF) by Speckle Tracking Echocardiography (STE).Methods: 58 volunteers participated in this study who divided into 3 groups including 22 PVR patients (mean age 18.96±7 year), 16 repaired Tetralogy of Fallot and 20 healthy age match control. For all patients, we performed 2D echocardiography and STE.Results: 2D echocardiography in all groups showed normal LV ejection fraction without a significant statistical difference (64% sPVR, 60% in repaired Tetralogy of Fallot and 62.5% in the control group). However, the mean global longitudinal strains (GLS) of LV were significantly reduced in both sPVR (-17.5±2.5%) and repaired Tetralogy of Fallot (-17.1±4.7%) patients rather than control group (-20.2±0.7%) (P = 0.003). But GLS had no statistically significant difference between repaired Tetralogy of Fallot and sPVR patients (P=0.9). Segmental analysis of longitudinal strain (LS) showed a significant decrease in sPVR patients and repaired Tetralogy of Fallot group in basal anterior, basal septal, basal anterolateral segments, mid-anterior and anterolateral segments. Except for lower LS in the apical-anteroseptal segment, this level was mostly spared in both sPVR and repaired Tetralogy of Fallot patients.Conclusion: LVEF was within normal range after sPVR patients, but the pattern of impaired segmental LS and GLS did not change as compared with rTOF. Surgical PVR in patients with repaired TOF may not have a significant effect on the improvement of LV function assessed by STE. LV damage which happens during surgical correction of TOF may have a permanent deteriorating effect on LV function.