The value of 3-dimensional longitudinal strain in the evaluation of complex coronary lesions in non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome patient

The aim of this study is to investigate the value of 3-dimensional global peak longitudinal strain (GPLS) derived from the 3-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (3D-STE) in the diagnosis of the complex non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE-ACS) by comparing GPLS to the synergy between percutaneous coronary intervention with taxus and cardiac surgery (SYNTAX) score. A total of 59 inpatients with NSTE-ACS in our hospital between October 2014 and January 2015 were enrolled into our study. All these subjects underwent the coronary angiography (CAG) and 3D-STE examination. The results of CAG were used to calculate the SYNTAX scores in each subject. The GPLS was assessed with speckle-tracking analysis using the dedicated software developed by GE Healthcare (Horten, Norway). We grouped all subjects according to the SYNTAX scores. A total of 23 patients (39%) were grouped as complex NSTE-ACS in our experiment. In our analysis, the values of GPLS significantly decreased from low SYNTAX scores to intermediate or high SYNTAX scores (−14.0 ± 2.7% and −9.5 ± 2.8%, respectively, P < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis showed that GPLS and diabetes mellitus were independent predictors for complex NSTE-ACS. The area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) for GPLS to evaluate patients with complex NSTE-ACS was 0.882 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.797–0.967, P < 0.001) with an optimal cutoff value of −11.76% (sensitivity 82.6% and specificity 83.3%). The evaluative value of the adjusted AUC for evaluating patients with complex NSTE-ACS improved after inclusion of GPLS (C statistics, 0.827–0.948, P < 0.001). The value of GPLS is significantly associated with the complexity of coronary artery lesions, according to SYNTAX score. Therefore, our study indicates that GPLS could be reproducible and efficient to evaluate the complex coronary artery disease in NSTE-ACS patients.