Rev Esp Cardiol
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We assessed the Doppler tissue imaging technique in the left mitral annulus of patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction since the technique has been used to evaluate diastolic function of the left ventricle and the values obtained have been considered to be relatively independent of the preload. ⋯ In patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction the Ea/Aa value tends towards pseudo-normalization when the preload is increased. This does not apply to the values of Ea, E/Ea or to size of the left atrium. Therefore, Doppler tissue imaging of the left mitral annulus is valuable in the assessment of left ventricular dysfunction and the problem of pseudo-normalization due to preloading.