Assessment of Subtle Myocardial Dysfunction in Asymptomatic Infants of Diabetic Mothers

Abstract

Abstract Background Cardiovascular abnormalities in infants of diabetic mothers (IDMS) occur in the form of congenital heart diseases (CHD), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Aim of the Work We hypothesized that two dimensional speckle tracking imaging and pulsed wave tissue Doppler imaging (TM) may uncover subtle myocardial dysfunction in asymptomatic IDMs. Patients and Methods This study was a cross sectional descriptive study conducted at Ain shams University Children’s Hospital Pediatric cardiology unit during the period from June 2017 till January 2018. Thirty IDMs were recruited. IDMs with CHD and HCM were excluded. We further subdivided them into 2 groups; Infants of gestational diabetic mothers (IGDM) and infants of pregestational diabetic mothers (IPGDM). They were all examined using TDI and STI echocardiography in the first week of life. This group was compared to a group of age and sex matched healthy controls. Results All IDMs had normal cardiac dimensions and global cardiac functions as controls, IVS (P = 0.434), LVED (P = 0.318), EF (P = 0.291), LVFS(P = 0.644) and GLS(P = 0.240). However, evidence of LV dysfunction proved by increased Tei index (p = 0.018). This subtle affection of myocardial function was more prominent in infants of IPGDM when compared to IGDMs (P = 0.004). Conclusion Subtle affection of myocardial functions may occur in IDMs even in the absence of morphological cardiac changes. This was detected by TDI. Neither conventional assessment of myocardial functions, nor STI are sensitive tools in detecting these changes. IPGDMs are at risk of more profound affection of myocardial function than infants of IGDMs.