Different functional cardiac characteristics observed in term/preterm neonates by echocardiography and tissue doppler imaging.

Abstract Background and aim To establish, using echocardiography, color-flow Doppler and tissue doppler imaging (TDI), physiological values of systolic/diastolic indexes in healthy term/pre-term newborns, and to identify how different degrees of maturity influence morpho-functional cardiac alterations during the transitional period. Study design and subjects 33 term newborns (M = 19, F = 14; gestational ages: 37th–41st week), and 20 pre-term infants (M = 11, F = 9; gestational ages: 31st–36th week) admitted to our department were studied. All infants underwent to clinical and Doppler ultrasound evaluations, carried out by the third to fourth day. Investigations included: M-mode echocardiography, color-flow Doppler and TDI. Outcome measures and results Term and preterm neonates differed for: interventricular septum and left systolic/diastolic ventricle diameters ( p p p p p p p p p Conclusions TDI is feasible in preterm neonates and enables assessment of myocardial velocities. With increasing gestational age, higher myocardial velocities and lower E/E′ Œ ratios were found. TDI addition to standard neonatal echocardiography may provide further important information about cardiac function.