Echocardiographic Findings in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis: A Case-Control Study.

BACKGROUND

Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that may involve the cardiovascular system, yet echocardiographic cardiac abnormalities remain underrecognized and incompletely characterized.

AIM: The purpose of this study is to assess echocardiographic abnormalities in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients and to compare the results with a control group of apparently healthy individuals who were matched for age and sex.

METHODS

Fifty-five AS patients and 29 healthy controls participated in a case-control study. The two groups were evaluated using transthoracic echocardiography including two-dimensional and M mode echocardiography, along with pulse wave Doppler and tissue Doppler imaging. All the participants were assessed for their left ventricular (LV) function, pericardial effusion, pulmonary artery pressure, any valvular involvement, and aortic root diameter.

RESULTS

Using conventional echocardiographic parameters, there were no appreciable changes between the patients and controls. When comparing AS patients to controls, some diastolic function parameters were significantly lower. In patients with AS, the E/A ratio and the E wave velocities were lower (P = 0.02 and 0.03, respectively). Patients with AS had considerably reduced lateral and septal a' and e' velocities. Furthermore, in comparison to controls, a greater proportion of AS patients had reduced septal e' velocity (P = 0.03) and lateral e' velocity (P ≤ 0.001). Nevertheless, just one AS patient had left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD).

CONCLUSION

This study showed that while conventional echocardiographic findings and LVDD frequency did not differ significantly between those with AS and the healthy participants, some diastolic function parameters were significantly impaired in AS patients, which might suggest the possibility of minor cardiac involvement in those with AS.