Association of ischemic heart disease to global and regional longitudinal strain in asymptomatic aortic stenosis

Longitudinal deformation has been shown to deteriorate with progressive aortic stenosis as well as ischemic heart disease. Despite that both conditions share risk factors and are often coexisting, studies have not assessed the influence on longitudinal deformation for both conditions simultaneously. Thus the purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between subclinical ischemic heart disease and global and regional longitudinal strain in asymptomatic patients with significant aortic stenosis. Prevalent patients with a diagnosis of aortic stenosis at six hospitals in the Greater Copenhagen area were screened for inclusion. A total of 104 asymptomatic patients with moderate-severe aortic stenosis (aortic valve area ≤1.5 cm²) fulfilled study criteria and underwent advanced echocardiographic analysis and coronary angiography by multi-detector computed tomography. Angiography revealed coronary stenosis >50 % in 31 % (n = 32). All regional longitudinal strain measures (apical, mid and basal longitudinal strain) were significant predictors of significant coronary stenosis (>70 % stenosis), but only apical and mid longitudinal strain were significant predictors in multivariable analyses independent of aortic valve area, stroke volume index, pro-BNP, valvulo-arterial impedance, body mass index and heart rate. In linear regression models with both aortic valve area and significant coronary stenosis, apical (p < 0.001) and mid (p < 0.01) longitudinal strain were associated to significant coronary stenosis but not aortic valve area. Conversely, basal longitudinal strain was significantly associated to aortic valve area (p = 0.001), but not to significant coronary stenosis. Subclinical coronary artery disease is frequent in moderate and severe aortic stenosis, and should be suspected when regional longitudinal dysfunction is predominant in the apical and mid ventricular segments.