CORRELATION BETWEEN TISSUE ABNORMALITIES AND MYOCARDIAL DEFORMATION INDICES IN ARRHYTHMOGENIC CARDIOMYOPATHY: A MULTIMODALITY IMAGING STUDY.

embargoed_20230325AIMS. Speckle Tracking Echocardiography (STE) and Feature Tracking Cardiac Magnetic Resonance imaging (FT-CMR) are advanced imaging techniques which are increasingly used for the quantification of myocardial deformation indices. We aimed to study the diagnostic performance and correlation of biventricular strain parameters provided by STE and FT-CMR and to evaluate their correlation with tissue abnormalities in patients with definite diagnosis of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC). METHODS. 41 AC Patients with available echocardiography (ECHO) and CMR study along with 41 healthy subjects who underwent complete echocardiography and 41 healthy subjects who underwent CMR scan were enrolled. Myocardial deformation indices (i.e. global longitudinal strain -GLS-; global circumferential strain -GCS-; global radial strain -GRS-) for both ventricles were calculated using STE and FT-CMR analysis. Quantification of tissue abnormalities (i.e. fat and late gadolinium enhancement -LGE- extension) was performed. RESULTS. All left and right ventricular (LV and RV) strain parameters were significantly impaired in AC patients compared with healthy subjects for both STE and FT-CMR analysis. There was a good correlation between ECHO LV GLS and both CMR LV 3DGLS and LV 2DGLS (Spearman’s Rho - rs - 0.662, p <0.001 and 0.561, p