title: Prevalence of diastolic dysfunction in patients with ankylosing spondylitis: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the prevalence of diastolic dysfunction (DD) in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) by following recommended criteria from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and using single variables reflecting DD.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 187 patients with AS (105 men; mean age 51 ± 13 years; mean duration of disease 15 ± 11 years) fulfilled the inclusion criteria and underwent pulsed-wave and tissue Doppler imaging.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By following ASE recommended criteria, we observed that 12% of patients with AS had mild DD. We also compared single standard Doppler values with normal age-stratified reference values and showed a wide variation in the number of patients with AS outside the 95% confidence interval (CI) of normal values depending on the variable chosen (ranging from 1.1% to 30.5%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By following recommended criteria, our cross-sectional study shows that DD was infrequent and mild in patients with AS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine/Cardiology, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg , Sweden.
authors.forename: B G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Sveälv
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Täng
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Klingberg
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Forsblad-d'Elia
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bergfeldt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D054144:Heart Failure, Diastolic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013167:Spondylitis, Ankylosing / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology