title: Early alterations in left ventricular diastolic function in normotensive diabetic patients.
abstract: In diabetes mellitus, structural and functional alterations of the heart can be already present at the time of first diagnosis. However, how early these alterations may occur has never been fully clarified. The present study aimed at investigating cardiac functional abnormalities in uncomplicated hypertensive or normotensive patients with a recent diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. We studied 40 diabetics (24 normotensives and 16 hypertensives) by means of routine echocardiography plus pulse tissue Doppler analysis. Data were compared with those obtained in healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Left ventricular remodelling was more evident in hypertensive diabetics than in normotensive diabetics vs controls. Diastolic function was altered in diabetic patients only when detected by pulse tissue Doppler analysis and not by conventional transmitral Doppler evaluation. Normotensive patients with type 2 diabetes with little or no evidence at standard echocardiography of alterations in cardiac structure and function, already displayed an alteration in diastolic function when the evaluation was based on the tissue Doppler approach. Patients with type 2 diabetes combined to hypertension showed more evident functional cardiac alterations at echocardiography. These findings support the conclusion that cardiac abnormalities are very early phenomena in type 2 diabetes.
authors: Clinica Medica, San Gerardo Hospital Monza and Milano-Bicocca University, Milano.
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: Capra
authors: Maurizio
authors: M
authors: Galderisi
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Giannattasio
authors: Pasquale
authors: P
authors: Innelli
authors: Rita
authors: R
authors: Facchetti
authors: Francesca
authors: F
authors: Cesana
authors: Marta
authors: M
authors: Alloni
authors: Stefano
authors: S
authors: Carugo
authors: Guido
authors: G
authors: Grassi
authors: Oreste
authors: O
authors: de Divitiis
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Mancia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003971:Diastole; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left