title: Non invasive assessment of cardiac function in patients with bronchial asthma (BA) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Most respiratory diseases involve the heart and can lead to acute or chronic pulmonary heart in the most serious cases. The common pathogenetic element is pulmonary arterial hypertension which es secondary to the resistance of the pulmonary circulation together with hypertrophy and/or dilatation of the right ventricle, caused mainly by chronic hypoxia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In order to verify the effects induced on pulmonary circulation and right heart by BA or COPD the cardiac function was assessed by mono and bidimensional Doppler echocardiography in 10 patients with BA (group A), 10 with COPD (group B) and 10 healthy control subjects (group C). At the M-mode echocardiography examination no significant difference was observed among the three study groups. By Doppler pw the peak velocity of early tricuspidal flow (VmaxE) was significantly higher in the group A when compared to the group B (p = 0.03). No subject had pulmonary hypertension. The pulmonary acceleration time (PAT) using pw Doppler technique was similar in groups A and B but it was significantly different when compared to group C (p = 0.006:A vs C; p = 0.03:B vs C).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest in patients either with BA or COPD, an early involvement of the right heart even if they had a clinical stable condition and no pulmonary hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Bagnato
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mileto
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gulli
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Piscioneri
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Giacobbe
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Pasquale
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schiava
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gangemi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Forestieri
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Purello D'Ambrosio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged