P4353Global longitudinal strain is a measure of subclinical left ventricular dysfunction in chronic inflammatory autoimmune conditions

Abstract

Abstract Background Myocardial deformation indices are proposed to be a more sensitive marker of subclinical dysfunction compared to standard measures of left ventricular (LV) systolic function. We hypothesize that subclinical myocardial dysfunction is present in chronic inflammatory autoimmune diseases such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), despite both conditions being mediated by different pro-inflammatory modulators. Purpose Identify subclinical myocardial dysfunction through assessment of global longitudinal strain in two different chronic autoimmune conditions, SLE and RA. Methods Consecutive patients admitted to our institution with known history of SLE or RA (>1 year disease activity) were examined. Patients with preexisting cardiac disease, LVEF <50% and those without comprehensive transthoracic echocardiograms (TTE) were excluded. Mean longitudinal LV strain was performed offline using vendor-independent software (TomTec v4.6) and compared to age- and gender-matched controls with normal LV function and no history of cardiac disease. Results Of the 86 patients examined (mean age 53.01±21.74, 85.4% female), 51 (59.3%) had SLE and 35 (40.7%) had RA. No significant difference in BMI, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea and stroke was observed between controls and patients with SLE or RA. While there was no significant difference in LVEF between RA patients and matched controls, there was a significantly lower GLS in the RA cohort. Conversely, patients with SLE had significantly lower LVEF and GLS when compared to matched controls, despite LVEF being in the normal range. See Table 1. Receiver operator curve analysis revealed that mean GLS is a better discriminator for autoimmune disease with an area under the curve of 0.829 (95% CI, 0.77 to 0.89; p<0.01) compared to LVEF with an area under the curve of 0.632 (95% CI, 0.55 to 0.72; p<0.01). Echocardiographic Parameters SLE (n=51) Controls (n=51) Sig (p value) RA (n=35) Controls (n=35) Sig (p value) LVEDV (mls) 102±30 85±20 <0.01 84±28 89±30 0.43 LVESV (mls) 36±17 29±9 0.02 26±14 30±12 0.24 Biplane LVEF % 59±6 63±4 <0.01 62±6 62±5 0.81 LV Mass (grams/m2) 96±34 72±20 <0.01 79±26 82±23 0.67 LV Mean GLS % 16.7±2.8 21.3±2 <0.01 17.8±1.7 19.1±2.5 0.02 Conclusions Our results suggest that chronic inflammatory conditions (SLE and RA) are associated with subclinical cardiac dysfunction. Impaired GLS may reflect early myocardial damage and be used as a tool for screening of patients with inflammatory conditions. Acknowledgement/Funding None