ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiovascular Imaging
Left Ventricular Myocardial Work in Pregnant Women with Autoimmune Diseases
Lu Zhang
Yilu Shi
Yaxi Wang
Xiaoshan Zhang
Shasha Duan
Inner Mongolia Medical College, Hohhot, China
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Abstract
Purpose: To quantitatively assess left ventricular (LV) myocardial work (MW) in pregnant women with autoimmune diseases (AD) using left ventricular pressure-strain loop (PSL) and explore its clinical implications. Methods: Ninety-six participants were enrolled between September 2020 and September 2022 at the Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University, including 33 pregnant women with AD (AD-P group), 26 non-pregnant AD patients (AD group), and 37 healthy pregnant women (H-P group) . Clinical data, conventional echocardiography, two-dimensional speckle-tracking, and LV-MW analyses were obtained. Group comparisons and correlations between baseline characteristics and MW parameters were analyzed. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and partial correlation were used for adjusted comparisons and associations. Results: Following adjustment, the AD-P group demonstrated increased LV volume and lower apical constructive work (CW) compared to the AD group, while global MW indices were similar. Compared with H-P group, AD-P patients had lower E/A, increased LV volumes, E/e', and peak strain dispersion (PSD). After adjustment, AD-P had reduced global work index (GWI), global constructive work (GCW), global work efficiency (GWE), and apical-CW, while PSD remained higher. Conclusion: LV myocardial work detected subclinical LV dysfunction in pregnant women with autoimmune disease. Apical-CW showed a consistent reduction in AD-P. These findings suggest that myocardial work, especially apical CW, provides incremental value over global longitudinal strain (GLS) in autoimmune pregnancies.
Summary
Keywords
Autoimmune Diseases, Echocardiography, left ventricular function, myocardial work, Pregnancy
Received
24 August 2025
Accepted
16 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Zhang, Shi, Wang, Zhang and Duan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Xiaoshan Zhang; Shasha Duan
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