Tissue Doppler Echocardiographic Assessment of Cardiac Function in Neonatal Sepsis

Sepsis and septic shock are recognized as one of the most frequent causes of mortal complications in neonatal intensive care units worldwide. It has been observed that early-onset sepsis has become a serious and common issue among neonates, especially preterm infants (1) Cardiac dysfunction is a well-recognized complication of severe sepsis and septic shock and is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in patients with sepsis [2].

The increasing use of echocardiographic techniques in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) has resulted in significant progress in the treatment of severely ill neonates in the last ten years, enabling more accurate and rapid assessment of the hemodynamic status of these fragile patients, in addition to introducing the possibility of individually tailored therapy for each patient. There is a current worldwide trend of intensive care pediatricians and neonatologists being trained to apply echocardiographic techniques, enabling the use of data obtained in everyday practice for clinical decision making [3].

Echocardiography emerges as a cornerstone in the non-invasive assessment of cardiac structure and function. Its capacity to be employed at the bedside offers immediate, real-time hemodynamic evaluation, making it an indispensable tool in neonatal intensive care. Through echocardiographic imaging, clinicians can delineate the cardiovascular profile of each neonate and tailor therapeutic approaches to address the specific underlying physio pathological abnormalities (4) Doppler echocardiography serves as another typical approach to assess cardiac structure and function. Sepsis-related CVD presents a <50% decrease in cardiac output or left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (5) Tissue Doppler imaging is more sensitive in assessing diastolic function and is less dependent on preload and afterload than conventional Doppler methods [6].