Left ventricular global longitudinal strain calculated from manually traced endocardial border lengths utilizing the images for routine ejection fraction measurement by biplane method of disks.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test whether the fractional change in the endocardial border length between end-diastole and end-systole as manually traced in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) measurement using the biplane method of disks (MOD) was consistent with the global longitudinal strain derived from speckle-tracking echocardiography.

Methods: For 105 patients who underwent echocardiography, two- and four-chamber images with manually traced endocardial lines for LVEF measurement by MOD were stored. LV endocardial lengths at end-diastole and at end-systole were measured on both images to calculate the fractional length changes, which were averaged (GLS). Speckle-tracking analysis was performed to measure global longitudinal strains in the apical two- and four-chamber and long-axis images, and the three values were averaged (GLS) according to the ASE and EACVI guidelines.

Results: There was no significant difference between GLS and GLS. GLS correlated well with GLS (r = 0.81, p < 0.001), and there was no fixed bias in the Bland-Altman analysis. The intraclass correlations for the intra- and inter-observer comparisons for GLS were excellent, and those for GLS were adequate.

Conclusion: The fractional LV endocardial border length change, GLS, showed sufficient agreement with GLS to justify its use as a substitute for the STE-derived global longitudinal strain.