We sought to assess the feasibility of 2-dimensional strain, a novel software for real-time quantitative echocardiographic assessment of myocardial function.

Conventional and a novel non-Doppler–based echocardiography technique for advanced wall-motion analysis were performed in 20 patients with myocardial infarction and 10 healthy volunteers from the apical views. Two-dimensional strain is on the basis of the estimation that a discrete set of tissue velocities are present per each of many small elements on the ultrasound image. This software permits real-time assessment of myocardial velocities, strain, and strain rate. These parameters were also compared with Doppler tissue imaging measurements in 10 additional patients.

In all, 80.3% of infarct and 97.8% of normal segments could be adequately tracked by the software. Peak systolic strain, strain rate, and peak systolic myocardial velocities, calculated from the software, were significantly higher in the normal than in the infarct segments. In the 10 additional patients, velocities, strain, and strain rate obtained with the novel software were not significantly different from those obtained with Doppler tissue imaging.

Two-dimensional strain can accomplish real-time wall-motion analysis, and has the potential to become a standard for real-time automatic echocardiographic assessment of cardiac function.