Early Echocardiographic Findings in β-Thalassemia Intermedia Patients Using Standard and Tissue Doppler Methods

• Published in: Pediatric cardiology 2011-02, Vol.32 (2), p.154-159
• Main Authors: Amoozgar, Hamid, Farhani, Nahal, Karimi, Mehran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; beta-Thalassemia - diagnostic imaging; beta-Thalassemia - pathology; Cardiac Surgery; Cardiology; Case-Control Studies; Child; Child, Preschool; Diastole; Echocardiography; Echocardiography, Doppler - instrumentation; Echocardiography, Doppler - methods; Female; Humans; Hypertension, Pulmonary - diagnostic imaging; Hypertension, Pulmonary - pathology; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mitral Valve; Original Article; Statistics, Nonparametric; Stroke Volume; Systole; Time Factors; Tricuspid Valve; Vascular Surgery; Ventricular Function, Left; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0172-0643; 1432-1971
• DOI: 10.1007/s00246-010-9834-2

Heart complications are among the serious problems of patients with β-thalassemia intermedia. This study aimed to evaluate myocardial function in these patients. Clinical parameters and both standard Doppler and pulsed Doppler tissue imaging parameters were compared in 51 β-thalassemia intermedia patients (mean age, 17.05 ± 5.8 years) and 20 normal subjects (mean age, 17.81 ± 7.35 years, p  = 0.98). In 11 patients (21.5%), pulmonary artery hypertension was detected. M-mode echocardiographic findings such as ejection fraction and fractional shortening did not show statistically significant changes ( p  > 0.005). Pulsed Doppler showed a significant difference in the early (E) to late diastolic (A) velocity ratio of the tricuspid and mitral valve between the patients and the control subjects ( p