Left ventricular global function index in healthy individuals by echocardiography

Determination of the global function of the left ventricle (LV) is one of the most important tasks of assessment of the methods of cardiovascular imaging. Nowadays ejection fraction LV (EF LV) and global longitudinal strain (GLS) calculated by echocardiography are widely used for this purpose. However, the methods have a number of limitations that require finding effective and accessible indicators that can be used in daily practice. One of the proposed indicators is LV global function index (LV GFI), calculated by echocardiography and taking into account cardiac remodeling.

The purpose of this study was to determine LV GFI values in healthy individuals, to compare the reproducibility of different rates of global function LV and to explore ratios depend LV GFI on age and gender in healthy individuals.

Methods. Between 2022 and 2023. was examined included 100 healthy individuals with average age of 38.0±9.8 (36.1–40.0). Of these, 20 examined randomly selected assessed intraindividual and interindividual variability of global function LV. All patients were done a transthoracic echocardiography. The LV GFI by echocardiography was defined by the ratio of stroke volume divided by LV total volume defined as the sum of mean LV cavity and myocardial volumes.

Results. The study determined normal LV GFI values in healthy persons – 28.1±3.9%. Correlation analysis showed a high degree of interrelation between the indicators for intraindividual and interindividual variability in relation to LV GFI (p <0.001, Pearson correlation coefficient – 0.780 and coefficient of variation – 5.1 for intraindividual variability, p <0.001, Pearson correlation coefficient – 0.725 and coefficient of variation – 5.2 for interindividual variability). The differences of LV GFI values were statistically significant according to age (p=0.002) in healthy individuals. LV GFI values were significantly higher (p <0.001) in women (29.6±4.0%) than in men (26.8±3.3%).

Conclusions. LV GFI values were determined in healthy persons by echocardiography. The results of the study showed high intraindividual and interindividual variability of LV GFI. LV GFI values were dependent on age and gender of healthy persons.

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