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Purpose: Identification of regional dysfunction is important for early risk stratification in patients with suspected non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). Strain echocardiography enables quantification of segmental myocardial deformation. However, the clinical use is hampered by time-consuming manual measurements. We aimed to evaluate whether an in-house developed software for automated analysis of segmental myocardial deformation based on tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) could predict coronary occlusion in patients with suspected NSTEMI., Methods: Eighty-four patients with suspected NSTEMI were included in the analysis. Echocardiography was performed at admission. Strain, strain rate and post-systolic shortening index (PSI) were analyzed by the automated TDI-based tool and the ability to predict coronary occlusion was assessed. For comparison, strain measurements were performed both by manual TDI-based analyses and by semi-automatic speckle tracking echocardiography (STE). All patients underwent coronary angiography., Results: Seventeen patients had an acute coronary occlusion. Global strain and PSI by STE were able to differentiate occluded from non-occluded culprit lesions (respectively - 15.0% vs. -17.1%, and 8.1% vs. 5.1%, both p-values < 0.05) and identify patients with an acute coronary occlusion (AUC 0.66 for both strain and PSI). Measurements of strain, strain rate and PSI based on TDI were not significantly different between occluded and non-occluded territories., Conclusion: Automated measurements of myocardial deformation based on TDI were not able to identify acute coronary occlusion in patients with suspected NSTEMI. However, this study confirms the potential of strain by STE for early risk stratification in patients with chest pain., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Objectives: To compare infarct size and left ventricular ejection fraction in patients with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) with and without acute coronary occlusions, and determine if myocardial strain by speckle-tracking echocardiography can identify acute occlusions in patients presenting with non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS)., Methods: 111 patients with suspected NSTE-ACS were enrolled shortly after admittance. Echocardiographic measurements were performed a median of 1 h (interquartile range 0.5-4) after admittance, and coronary angiography 36 ± 21 h after onset of symptoms. Territorial longitudinal and circumferential strain was calculated based on the perfusion territories of the three major coronary arteries in a 16-segment model of the left ventricle, and compared with traditional echocardiographic parameters. Long-term follow-up was by echocardiography and contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (ceMRI)., Results: Patients with NSTEMI due to acute coronary occlusion had higher peak troponin T than patients with NSTEMI without acute occlusions (4.9 ± 4.7 vs 0.9 ± 1.1 μg/l, p<0.001), larger infarct size by ceMRI (13 ± 8% vs 3 ± 3%, p<0.001) and poorer left ventricular ejection fraction (48 ± 6% vs 57 ± 6%, p<0.001) at follow-up. Territorial circumferential strain was the best parameter for predicting acute coronary occlusion. A territorial circumferential strain value >-10.0% had 90% sensitivity, 88% specificity and area under the curve=0.93 for identification of acute occlusions., Conclusions: Patients with NSTEMI due to acute coronary occlusions develop larger infarcts and more impaired left ventricular function than patients with NSTEMI without occlusions, regardless of infarct-related territory. Territorial circumferential strain by echocardiography enables very early identification of acute coronary occlusions in patients with NSTE-ACS and may be used for detection of patients requiring urgent revascularisation.