This study was performed to clarify whether the longitudinal myocardial velocity gradient could give new insights into the features of congestive heart failure in patients with primary amyloidosis.

A total of 33 consecutive patients with biopsy specimen–proven primary amyloidosis were examined by pulsed Doppler tissue imaging.

In all, 22 had evidence of heart involvement, of whom 11 had clinical congestive heart failure. Sample volumes were placed on basal and midventricle in the apical 2- and 4-chamber views. Peak systolic, and peak early and late diastolic wall-motion velocities were measured at each site. Longitudinal myocardial velocity gradients were calculated as the difference between basal and midmyocardial velocities. Single-point analysis of pulsed Doppler tissue imaging could not distinguish any difference among groups, whereas the longitudinal myocardial velocity gradients in systole and early diastole were significantly impaired in the patients with congestive heart failure compared with both the patients without cardiac involvement and those with cardiac amyloidosis without congestive heart failure.

Longitudinal myocardial velocity gradient is a sensitive method for detecting systolic and diastolic dysfunction in cardiac amyloidosis and is superior to single-point analysis Doppler tissue imaging.