To study the spatio-temporal correlation of papillary muscular (PM) mechanics and adjacent left ventricle (LV) wall using ultrasonic dual pulse-wave Doppler (dual-PW) imaging.

In the study, 112 healthy volunteers without abnormalities on physical examination, electrocardiogram and echocardiogram and medical history of hypertension, myocardial infarction, valvular heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases were enrolled in May and June 2012 at Sichuan Provincial People′s Hospital. The velocity spectrum of tissue motion were synchronized and obtained at both the middle of PM and the bottom of its adjacent LV wall using dual-PW in the apical left ventricular long axis, four-chamber and two-chamber views. The measurements were simultaneously performed in the same cardiac cycle at two corresponding points for tissue velocity peak systolic velocity (s′), peak early diastolic velocity (e′), and late diastolic velocity (a′). And peak of R-wave on ECG was taken as the start point, which was used to record the time to peak of St, Et, At.

Compared with the corresponding LV wall, it was significantly higher in e′ and a′, and s′ was significantly lower at anterolateral papillary muscle (APM) (t=-2.75, 7.76, 2.65, all P<0.01). Compared with the corresponding LV wall, it was significantly higher in e′ and a′ at posteromedial papillary muscle (PPM) (t=11.74, 3.31, both P<0.01), and there were not significant statistical difference in s′. Compared with the corresponding LV wall, it was much earlier for time to peak velocity at papillary muscle during the early diastole in two groups (t=-8.57, -8.36, both P<0.01). Compared with the anterolateral papillary muscle, it was longer for the systolic time to peak velocity of posterolateral papillary muscles, and lower for peak systolic velocity (t=2.74, -7.34, both P<0.01), and there were not significant statistical difference in St and At. There were significant correlations between diastolic peak velocity and time to peak velocity as well as between papillary muscles and the corresponding LV wall. There was a significant positive correlation of diastolic time to peak velocity between two PM groups.

There is a corresponding spatio-temporal relationship of myocardial mechanics between PM and adjacent LV wall. Meanwhile, tissue movement of PM were shown with a higher synchronization and correlation during diastole.