INTRODUCTION
Several studies have suggested that left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is associated with a higher prevalence of comorbidities and adverse cardiovascular outcomes in subjects with previous cardiovascular events (1–4). Moreover, ventricular remodeling causes atrial distortion such as left atrial (LA) enlargement, which is a significant predictor of adverse cardiovascular events (5). Evidence suggests that LVH could be the mechanism that produces left ventricular dysfunction rather than a compensatory mechanism to maintain left ventricular wall stress and forward output (6). This condition was evaluated in subjects with mild to moderate aortic stenosis, where LVH occurred in 17%; in asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis and in subjects with arterial hypertension LVH was found in up to 67% of the cases (7). This has led to the hypothesis that ventricular remodeling could be evaluated using other global myocardial parameters such as global strain, especially to determine myocardial dysfunction. Left atrial volume and function are sensitive indicators of left ventricular (LV) filling pressure and diastolic dysfunction. Evaluation of left atrial and left ventricular global-strain (LA-GS; LV-GS) using 2-D speckle tracking analysis has been shown to be an accurate automatized diagnostic tool for functional evaluation of different cardiomyopathies (8). Furthermore, decrease of LA-GS has been associated with increased incidence of atrial fibrillation, sudden cardiac arrest and increased mortality (9-11). Both ventricular geometry and strain evaluation by speckle tracking have been proposed as complementary tools. The aim of this study was to compare LV-GS and LA-GS values, assessed by 2D-velocity vector imaging in different geometric remodeling variants in adult patients. Additionally, the associated risk factors for ventricular and atrial dysfunction, as defined using LV-GS and LA-GS were assessed. We hypothesize that global strain is correlated with ventricular function and could be impaired with different ventricular geometric variants. Thus, a specific ventricular variant could be associated with ventricular and atrial dysfunction.