朴 永大¹, 長崎 孝太郎^{1, 4}, 別府 慎太郎³, 永田 正毅¹, 増田 喜一², 仁村 泰治³, 榊原 博¹

Yung-Dae PARK¹, Kohtaro NAGASAKI^{1, 4}, Shintaro BEPPU³, Seiki NAGATA¹, Yoshikazu MASUDA², Yasuharu NIMURA³, Hiroshi SAKAKIBARA¹

¹国立循環器病センター病院心臓内科, ²国立循環器病センター病院生理機能検査部, ³国立循環器病センター研究所, ⁴現広島大学医学部第二内科

¹National Cardiovascular Center, Hospital, ²National Cardiovascular Center, Hospital, ³National Cardiovascular Center, Research Institute, ⁴The Second Department of Internal Medicine, Hiroshima University, School of Medicine

キーワード : echocardiography, drifting dregs-like echoes

Clinical significance of the so-called drifting dregs-like echoes in the left ventricle was investigated prospectively in 57 cases of myocardial infarction with asynergy in the left ventricular anterior wall and 11 cases of dilated cardiomyopathy, and we concluded as follows:
(1) In the ultrasonic equipment, the optimal gain was higher by 10-20 dB for visualizing the drifting dregs-like echoes than for usual imaging the intracardiac structures.
(2) The common conditions necessary for the appearance of the drifting dregs-like echoes were left ventricular dilatation (diastolic volume index ≥ 120 ml/m²) and left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction ≤ 35%).
(3) The presence of left ventricular aneurysm was not necessary for the genesis of the drifting dregs-like echoes.
(4) There was no direct relationship between the appearance of the drifting dregs-like echoes and the left ventricular thrombi formation. The blood flow stagnation was assumed to be a common underlying factor. We should perform a further study on the production of these intracardiac echoes.