This post is here just because I happened to watch the EACVI video on speckle tracking. I don’t recommend it.
Primary care clinicians need to know what speckle tracking is as your echo reports from your echo lab should now contain an evaluation of the Global Longitudinal Strain For Left Ventriclular Function.
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I just wanted to have an idea of what speckle tracking is and here is what I found:
Here is a YouTube video from 123sonography.com which is an introduction to the terminology.
Published on Oct 30, 2018
And here is a link to a great handout, Beginner’s Guide to Strain:
What should be in your lab in 2018 [PDF] from the American Society of Echocardiography. Below is a picture of the first slide:
And finally, here is a link to the website, Strain rate imaging.
Myocardial deformation imaging by ultrasound / echocardiography
Tissue Doppler and Speckle tracking by Asbjørn Støylen, Professor, Dr. med.Website updated December 2018.
The next video, below, is not that helpful to me as a primary care POCUS heart practioner. I watched it as it was one of the first videos to come up on my YouTube search.
The first 31 minutes of the webinar discusses the technical aspects of speckle tracking.
At 31:00 the webinar starts a clinical discussion of speckle tracking, longitudinal strain.
Dr.Edvarsen states that we should now report global longitudinal strain as a part of our complete echo report.
Dr. Edvarsen presents a list of papers from 2015 to 2017 that includes recommendations for the use of strain:
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Additional Resources
(1) Definitions for a common standard for 2D speckle tracking echocardiography: consensus document of the EACVI/ASE/Industry Task Force to standardize deformation imaging [PubMed Abstract] [Full Text HTML] [Full Text PDF]. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging. 2015 Jan;16(1):1-11.
The above article has been cited by 52 PubMed Central articles.
(2) Standardization of adult transthoracic echocardiography reporting in agreement with recent chamber quantification, diastolic dysfunction, and heart valve disease recommendations: an expert consensus document of the European Asociation Of Cardiovascular Imaging [PubMed Abstract] [Full Text HTML] [Full Text PDF]. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging. 2017 Dec 1;18(12):1301-1310.