Assessment of lateral mitral, septal and tricuspid myocardial performance indices by tissue Doppler imaging in asthmatic children.

Abstract

Recurrent hypoxia makes asthmatics at risk for pulmonary hypertension and ventricular dysfunction. Early stages of these cardiovascular diseases cannot be detected by conventional echocardiography. Tissue Doppler imaging has been introduced recently as a more sensitive and more accurate tool for investigating cardiovascular diseases. Investigating ventricular functions in asymptomatic asthmatic children using tissue Doppler echocardiography. Fifty asthmatic children and 50 controls were examined by conventional echocrdiography. Tissue Doppler echocardiography was performed to measure the myocardial performance (Tei) index at the lateral mitral, septal and tricuspid annuli. Septal Tei indices among patients and uncontrolled asthmatics were significantly higher than healthy subjects and controlled asthmatics, respectively (P<0.05). Septal and tricuspid Tei indices were significantly higher among severe asthmatics and patients with concomitant nasal allergy than those with mild asthma and those without concomitant nasal allergy, respectively (P<0.05). Septal Tei index correlated negatively with daily inhaled corticosteroid dose (r = -0.412, P=0.003) and forced expiratory volume in the 1st second/forced vital capacity (r = -0.877, P<0.001). Lateral Tei index correlated positively with the patient age (r=0.312, P=0.027) and duration of asthma (r=0.359, P=0.011). Tei index can detect subclinical ventricular dysfunction in asthmatics and is affected by asthma duration, control and severity. It can be used for future scoring of asthma severity. Septal annulus seems to be the best location for assessing Tei index in asthmatics.