Why the study?
Does Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) echocardiography improve the evaluation of cardiac function and prediction of prognosis in patients with systemic sclerosis?
Does Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) echocardiography improve the evaluation of cardiac function and prediction of prognosis in patients with systemic sclerosis?
Tissue Doppler Imaging is a valuable echocardiographic tool for assessing myocardial involvement and predicting prognosis in patients with systemic sclerosis.
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TDI may aid ventricular assessment in systemic sclerosis; leaves open need for prospective validation before practice change.
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disease characterized by widespread vascular lesions. Primary myocardial involvement is common in SSc and, when clinically evident, appears as a poor prognostic factor. Using conventional methods, myocardial perfusion impairment and biventricular dysfunction have been reported in SSc. Recently, Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging have confirmed these results. TDI, with its derived strain, strain rate and myocardial performance index, is a powerful new echocardiographic tool that is now becoming the standard for assessing ventricular function in a variety of situations and diseases. In the present article we review the main published data on the application of TDI in the evaluation of cardiac function and prediction of prognosis in patients with SSc.
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A 2007 study studied this question.
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