Assessment of cardiac function with Doppler tissue imaging in asymptomatic HIV-infected patients.
Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) is a useful tool for the detection of subtle systolic function abnormalities related to the longitudinal contraction. We assessed left ventricular (LV) systolic function with DTI in 45 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients without any heart-related symptoms and in 30 healthy control subjects. Although conventional echocardiography showed no differences between groups, DTI revealed lower peak systolic velocities in group A patients when compared with group B ones (Sms: 8.84+/-0.94 cm/s vs. 9.42+/-0.84 cm/s, respectively, P<0.001 and Sml: 9.58+/-1.86 cm/s vs. 10.78+/-2.07 cm/s P=0.003). In group A patients, both peak systolic myocardial velocities at the septal (Sms) and lateral mitral annulus (Sml) correlated with CD4 lymphocyte count (P = 0.034 and 0.009, respectively). We conclude that pulse wave DTI reveals subtle and non-otherwise detectable abnormalities of the longitudinal LV contractile function in asymptomatic patients with positive HIV serology. DTI study should potentially be expanded in the population of HIV-infected patients, aiming at an early identification of LV systolic dysfunction.
Karavidas
Apostolos
A
Department of Cardiology, Athens General Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Foukarakis
Manolis
M
Lazaros
George
G
Chini
Maria
M
Fotiadis
Ioannis
I
Arapi
Sophia
S
Gialernios
Theodoros
T
Potamitis
Nicolaos
N
Gargalianos
Panos
P
Matsakas
Evangellos
E
Stefanadis
Christodoulos
C
D000328:Adult; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006334:Heart Function Tests; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged