In the early stages of heart failure, some regions of the heart become weaker than others. To help maintain global heart function, the stronger other areas of the heart will compensate for the weaker regions. The heart appears healthy and regional weakness around the heart remains undetected, which may result in unexplained cardiovascular health problems such as chest pain or, in advanced cases, a sudden cardiac event.
To overcome the diagnostic limitations created by the heart's compensatory mechanisms, MyoStrain® quantifies the segmental myocardial strain across 48 segments of the heart's left and right ventricles. This makes MyoStrain unique in that it is the first heart function test to directly and accurately quantify the heart on a segmental basis. This enables physicians to assess patient heart function based on how strong each segment contracts during across in all areas of the myocardium. Using this insight, physicians can focus on detecting dysfunction early and initiating proactive treatment strategies without depending on a global change in heart function.
As shown above, a MyoStrain report provides strain diagrams to help visualize a patient's heart function on a segmental basis. Segments with a normal contraction are indicated in blue, while segments with an impaired or abnormal contraction are indicated in green or yellow. These diagrams show longitudinal and circumferential strain in both the left and right ventricles of the heart.
When combined, these measures provide a MyoHealth® score, which is a percentage calculated based on the number of normally functioning left-ventricular segments divided by the total number of left-ventricular segments. This score provides a patient baseline to help physicians quantitatively monitor changes in heart function over time.
This helps physicians to determine how various diseases and treatments are affecting the heart over time, which can be used to help inform proactive clinical decisions in an optimized, patient-centric approach to care.
