Table 1.

Supplemental echocardiographic measures for LV diastole assessment.

Measurement	Significance	Utility
Mitral valve inflow deceleration time (DT)	Equated with LV chamber stiffness. Measure independent of heart rate, contractility, and afterload.	More sensitive and specific that E/A ratio. Recent cardioversion for atrial fibrillation. A short DT post myocardial infarction associated with worse prognosis.
Tricuspid Regurgitation	In up to 25% of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension have occult LVDD and might require fluid challenge or exercise for proper documentation.	Pulmonary hypertension might be simply reflective of pulmonary parenchymal or vascular disease rather accompanying LVDD.
LV color-M-mode	Excellent spatiotemporal map of blood flow velocities along the scan line from the MA to the LV apex. Color M-mode correlates with the time constant of LV relaxation.	Measuring the slope of the isovelocity contour has been used to examine diastolic function based on how rapid (normal) or reduced (abnormal) this slope of flow moves away from MA. Different slope angulations can be obtained between the M-mode cursor and flow resulting in potential erroneous measurements that can compromise reproducibility and feasibility.