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Comparative Study
. 2012;7(6):e40061.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0040061. Epub 2012 Jun 29.

How similar are the mice to men? Between-species comparison of left ventricular mechanics using strain imaging

Kenya Kusunose  1 , Marc S Penn, Youhua Zhang, Yuanna Cheng, James D Thomas, Thomas H Marwick, Zoran B Popović
Affiliations
Comparative Study

How similar are the mice to men? Between-species comparison of left ventricular mechanics using strain imaging

Kenya Kusunose et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Background: While mammalian heart size maintains constant proportion to whole body size, scaling of left ventricular (LV) function parameters shows a more complex scaling pattern. We used 2-D speckle tracking strain imaging to determine whether LV myocardial strains and strain rates scale to heart size.

Methods: We studied 18 mice, 15 rats, 6 rabbits, 12 dogs and 20 human volunteers by 2-D echocardiography. Relationship between longitudinal or circumferential strains/strain rates (S(Long)/SR(Long), S(Circ)/SR(Circ)), and LV end-diastolic volume (EDV) or mass were assessed by the allometric (power-law) equation Y = kM(β).

Results: Mean LV mass in individual species varied from 0.038 to 134 g, LV EDV varied from 0.015 to 102 ml, while RR interval varied from 81 to 1090 ms. While S(Long) increased with increasing LV EDV or mass (β values 0.047±0.006 and 0.051±0.005, p<0.0001 vs. 0 for both) S(Circ) was unchanged (p = NS for both LV EDV or mass). Systolic and diastolic SR(Long) and SR(Circ) showed inverse correlations to LV EDV or mass (p<0.0001 vs. 0 for all comparisons). The ratio between S(Long) and S(Circ) increased with increasing values of LV EDV or mass (β values 0.039±0.010 and 0.040±0.011, p>0.0003 for both).

Conclusions: While S(Circ) is unchanged, S(Long) increases with increasing heart size, indicating that large mammals rely more on long axis contribution to systolic function. SR(Long) and SR(Circ), both diastolic and systolic, show an expected decrease with increasing heart size.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Examples of longitudinal, circumferential and radial myocardial strain and strain rate profiles in different species studied.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Scaling of longitudinal strain (Slong) and peak systolic and early diastolic strain rates (SRlong) to left ventricular end-diastolic volume and mass.
Filled circles, empty squares, filled triangles, filled squares, and empty circles represent mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, and humans, respectively. EDV: end-diastolic volume; LV: left ventricle.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Scaling of longitudinal peak systolic and early diastolic strain rates obtained by tissue Doppler (TDI-SRlong) to left ventricular end-diastolic volume and mass.
Legend as for Figure 2.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Scaling of circumferential strain (Scirc) and corresponding peak systolic and early diastolic strain rates (SRcirc ) to left ventricular end-diastolic volume and mass.
Legend as for Figure 2.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Scaling of Srad and corresponding peak systolic and early diastolic strain rates (SRrad) to left ventricular end-diastolic volume and mass.
Legend as for Figure 2.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Scaling of long to short axis strain ratio (Slong/Scirc Ratio) to left ventricular end-diastolic volume and mass.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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