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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2007 Aug 24.
Published in final edited form as: J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2007 May;20(5):539–551. doi: 10.1016/j.echo.2006.10.013

Figure 7.

Figure 7

Apex-to-base longitudinal displacement of the left ventricle (LV) measured by 2-D speckle tracking of B-mode ultrasound images (2 D strain) in normal (A) and a patient with dilated cardiomyopathy (also shown in Figure 4). In normal healthy individual, the LV base descends towards the apex and there is base-to-apex gradient of longitudinal displacement. Note that the descent of the LV base towards the apex is associated with higher longitudinal shortening strains from the LV apex (Figure 4). The longitudinal strain gradient is reversed in patient with dilated cardiomyopathy (figure 4). This is associated with paradoxical longitudinal ascent of the LV base in systole. Phases 1–5 are described in Fig. 6 legend.