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Objectives The association of QRS duration (QRSd) with ventricular dyssynchrony is well-known in systolic heart failure (HF). However, there are no data regarding the relationship between QRSd and atrial dyssynchrony in patients with HF. We aimed to investigate the association of QRSd with intra-atrial and inter-atrial dyssynchrony in patients with systolic HF by using color tissue Doppler imaging (TDI). Methods The study consisted of 70 systolic HF patients and 35 healthy controls. According to QRSd, HF patients were categorized into 2 subgroups as narrow QRS (n = 35) and wide QRS (n = 35) groups. Time intervals between the onset of P-wave and the onset of A-wave on color TDI from the right atrium (P-RA), inter-atrial septum (P-IAS) and left atrium (P-LA) were measured. Atrial dyssynchrony was defined as differences between P-RA and P-IAS (RA dyssynchrony), between P-LA and P-IAS (LA dyssynchrony) and between P-RA and P-LA (inter-atrial dyssynchrony). Results In patients with either HF groups, we observed significant impairment in intra-atrial and inter-atrial synchronicity compared with the controls (P

Objectives Left ventricular (LV) synchronous contraction is impaired in patients with hypertension (HT). The deleterious effects of HT on cardiovascular system are more evident in patients with nondipper HT than dippers. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of nondipping HT on LV systolic synchronicity compared with dippers and controls. Methods One hundred patients with newly diagnosed essential HT and 50 normotensive subjects were enrolled in this study. The hypertensive patients were assigned 2 groups comprising 55 dippers and 45 nondippers. Each subject underwent a comprehensive transthoracic echocardiographic examination. The evaluation of systolic dyssynchrony was performed by tissue synchronization imaging, and the time to regional peak systolic tissue velocity (Ts) in LV was measured on the basis of 12 segmental models. The standard deviation (SD) of the 12 LV segments (Ts-SD-12) and maximal difference in Ts between any two of the 12 LV segments (Ts-12) were calculated. Results Compared with the control group, the synchronicity indexes were significantly prolonged in the hypertensive patients. Furthermore, Ts-SD-12 and Ts-12 values were found to be significantly impaired in patients with nondipper HT, compared with dippers: Ts-SD-12 (38.1 ± 18.7 vs. 31.8 ± 15.4, P ≤ 0.001); Ts-12 (123.0 ± 50.6 vs. 98.4 ± 42.3, P ≤ 0.001). Stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed a significant negative association between LV dyssynchrony indices and percentage decline in BP level from day to night. Conclusion Synchronous systolic contraction of LV is found to be significantly impaired in patients with nondipping circadian pattern of HT compared with dippers and the controls.