Abstract
To evaluate the changes of left atrial (LA) geometry and function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by conventional echocardiography and two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging (2D-STI). We enrolled 46 RA patients with a duration of < 5 years as Group I, 40 RA patients with a duration of ≥ 5 years as Group II, and 40 normal subjects as the control group. Conventional echocardiography was conducted to measure traditional parameters. The LA strain during reservoir phase (LASr), LA strain during conduit phase (LAScd), LA strain during contraction phase (LASct), and LA global longitudinal strain (LAGLS) were obtained from 2D-STI. Related ultrasound results were compared. The LASct was significantly higher in Group I than in control group (P < 0.05). The LASr, LAScd, and LAGLS were significantly lower in Group I than in control group (all P < 0.05). The LASr, LAScd, LASct, and LAGLS were significantly lower in Group II than in control group and Group I (all P < 0.05). The function of LA impaired in RA patients, and the impairment aggravated with the clinical course of RA patients. 2D-STI technology can early and accurately evaluate the LA function of RA patients by evaluating LASr, LAScd, LASct, and LAGLS.
Highlights
To evaluate the changes of left atrial (LA) geometry and function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by conventional echocardiography and two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging (2D-STI)
Among RA patients, there were no significant differences in rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic peptide containing citrulline (Anti CCP) between the groups
The LA strain during reservoir phase (LASr), LA strain during conduit phase (LAScd), LA strain during contraction phase (LASct), and LA global longitudinal strain (LAGLS) were significantly lower in Group II than in control group and Group I (Table 4)
Summary
To evaluate the changes of left atrial (LA) geometry and function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by conventional echocardiography and two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging (2D-STI). The LASr, LAScd, LASct, and LAGLS were significantly lower in Group II than in control group and Group I (all P < 0.05). 2D-STI technology can early and accurately evaluate the LA function of RA patients by evaluating LASr, LAScd, LASct, and LAGLS. The structural and functional abnormalities of the left atrium occur early in cardiovascular diseases. Real time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT-3DE) can noninvasively evaluate the structure and function of left atrium, the complete heart wall could not be observed for patients with significant heart enlargement because of the relatively low resolution and low image clarity of RT-3DE. In this technique with angle-independence, by tracking the speckle patterns in the two-dimensional plane, the imageprocessing algorithm allows for better evaluation of global and local myocardial d eformation16,17. 2D-STI has Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:21537
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