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Objective:

Sepsis is common in children and often results in cardiac dysfunction. Assessment of patients with sepsis-associated myocardial depression using ejection fraction and fractional shortening with conventional echocardiography is load dependent and often reveals cardiac dysfunction only after clinical deterioration has occurred. Speckle tracking imaging is a novel technology that can assess deformation and strain by tracking displacement of acoustic markers in the myocardium. We hypothesize that speckle tracking imaging will detect cardiac impairments during sepsis that are not appreciated by conventional echocardiography.

Design:

Retrospective, observational study.

Setting:

A large, tertiary-care pediatric intensive care unit.

Patients:

Fifteen pediatric patients with septic shock, and 30 age-and gender-matched healthy controls.

Interventions:

Transthoracic echocardiograms from subjects with septic shock …