Left ventricular hemodynamic forces: gaining insight into left ventricular function

Analysis of intraventricular pressure gradients has gained interest due to the recent development of a new method of image analysis based on cardiac magnetic resonance feature tracking or echocardiographic speckle tracking. Currently, images acquired from routinely performed cardiac magnetic resonance or echocardiography can be analyzed, and the left ventricular hemodynamic forces (HDF) curves generated and displayed for measurements. This modality has been applied in clinical scenarios and normal reference values are available. However, different parameters have been derived in the available studies on HDF, and there is no standardization on which parameters should be reported. In this short review, we describe how to assess HDF and discuss the different parameters that can be derived from the HDF curves.