Left and right ventricular function is impaired in Behçet's disease.

OBJECTIVES

Subclinical cardiac involvement may occur in patients with Behçet's disease (BD). The purpose of our study was to assess the noninvasive parameters of biventricular function derived from Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) of the tricuspid and mitral annular motion in BD.

METHODS

Twenty-one patients with BD and 20 control subjects were enrolled in this study. All subjects were selected to exclude those with cardiovascular risk factors. Standard echocardiography and pulsed DTI were obtained in every patient.

RESULTS

Peak systolic (13.71 +/- 2.09 vs 20.01 +/- 1.57, P < 0.001), peak early diastolic (11.26 +/- 2.52 vs 15.35 +/- 2.06, P < 0.001) tricuspid annular velocities were significantly lower in patients than controls. Peak systolic (8.68 +/- 1.4 vs 12.25 +/- 1.7, P < 0.001), peak early diastolic (7.89 +/- 1.07 vs 9.94 +/- 1.12, P < 0.001), and peak end diastolic (8.30 +/- 1.32 vs 9.23 +/- 0.91, P = 0.013) lateral mitral annular velocities were significantly lower in patients than controls.

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrated that myocardial velocities, were affected in patients with BD. Therefore, we conclude that right and left ventricular function is impaired in patients with BD.