Echocardiographic evaluation of ventricular function in young adults with bronchial asthma

Evaluation of cardiac function in asthmatic children by Tissue Doppler Echocardiography

BACKGROUND

Bronchial asthma is a global health problem with rising prevalence in developing countries. Children with severe asthma can experience cor pulmonale later in life, but little is known about the cardiac changes that might be present earlier in mild or moderate severity of disease. This study aimed to evaluate biventricular function among children suffering from persistent asthma by Tissue Doppler Echocardiography (TDE).

RESULTS

Thirty-five asthmatic children enrolled from Alexandria Children's Hospital between September 2021 to May 2022; they were compared to 35 healthy matched children. Chronic respiratory disease, cardiac disease, or other comorbidities were excluded. The mean age of cases was 8.87 ± 2.03 years with a male/female ratio of 54.3%:45.7%. There were 28.3% mild cases, 45.7% moderate, and 25.7% severe. Conventional echocardiographic variables of cardiac function were normal for both ventricles. The TDE indices of medial mitral annulus (S' velocity and peak E') were significantly reduced (14.55 ± 2.30 and 14.69 ± 2.30) versus controls (15.68 ± 1.96, 15.69 ± 1.76, P; 0.044, P < 0.0045) but with preserved LV function. The lateral tricuspid annulus (S' velocity and peak E') was significantly reduced (11.53 ± 3.24 and 11.56 ± 3.18) versus controls (15.71 ± 0.98, 16.02 ± 1.75, < 0.001*), while E/A and IVRT were significantly increased (1.49 ± 0.06 versus 1.70 ± 0.18 and 102.39 ± 5.37 versus 140.10 ± 34.35, respectively, P < 0.001*) with impaired RV function. Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) was negatively correlated with the IVRT of the tricuspid annulus (P = 0.002, r = -0.503*) and to the E'/A' (P = 0.036, r =-0.355*). All TDE variables of lateral tricuspid annulus of severe subgroups were significantly  changed versus moderate or mild subgroups.

CONCLUSIONS

Tissue Doppler echocardiography is the recommended modality for early detection of biventricular cardiac dysfunction among children with different levels of asthma severity. Periodic screening is advised through the use of IVRT especially for RV.

Subclinical cardiovascular dysfunction in children and adolescents with asthma

BACKGROUND

There is close association between asthma and cardiovascular functions as both diseases share common inflammatory pathways. The current study was aimed at investigating the risk factors, associated with endothelial and cardiac functions in children with newly-diagnosed mild-persistent asthma.

METHODS

A total of 33 steroid-naive asthmatic children [median(interquartile-range); 9.1 years(7.8-13.5)] and 16 healthy controls [11.5 years(9.9-13.6)] were included. Their demographic, clinical and laboratory findings were recorded. Carotid Artery intima-media thickness (CIMT), stiffness, distensibility and strain were measured as atheroclerosis markers. Conventional and tissue Doppler imaging was performed to evaluate ventricular function.

RESULTS

The patients with asthma had higher CIMT and stiffness and lower strain and distensibility compared to controls (p < 0.001 for all). There was a significant correlation between the duration of asthmatic symptoms and subclinical-atherosclerosis as well as peripheral eosinophil count (p < 0.001, p < 0.05). The patients had lower tricuspid-annular-plane-systolic-excursion (TAPSE), ejection time, and higher isovolumetric relaxation time (IRT), isovolumetric contraction time (ICT), and left ventricle myocardial performance index (LVMPI) than the control subjects (p < 0.001 for all). A positive correlation was also observed between the duration of asthmatic-symptoms and cardiac-function parameters.

CONCLUSION

Children with mild persistent asthma had subclinical atherosclerosis and ventricular dysfunction even in the early stage of disease. Symptom duration was closely associated with both subclinical atherosclerosis and ventricular dysfunction. Myocardial performance index was abnormal in the asthmatic children when assessed by tissue Doppler Imaging even though they had normal ejection fraction in conventional echocardiography. Future prospective studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm these findings and to assess the possible protective effect of ICSs in the prevention of subclinical atherosclerosis.

Assessment of biventricular function with speckle tracking echocardiography in newly-diagnosed adult-onset asthma

OBJECTIVE

There is limited number of studies on the effect of asthma disease on cardiac functions. The aim of this study was to investigate if there was any association between adult onset asthma and cardiac dysfunction.

METHODS

Total of 83 nonsmoking adult onset asthma patients aged between 18 and 65, and 83 control subjects with comparable age and sex distribution were included in the study.None of the subjects had any chronic cardiovascular or systemic diseases.Two-dimensional, M-mode and tissue Doppler examinations were performed. STE analysis was obtained using the QLAB software. Complete blood count and high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels were measured.

RESULTS

There was no difference between two groups in terms of standard echocardiography and Doppler parameters. While tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was observed to be lower in asthmatics (24.9 ± 2.0 vs. 25.5 ± 2.1, p = 0.043), right ventricular myocardial performance index (RV MPI) was higher (0.36 ± 0.07 vs 0.32 ± 0.06, p˂0.001). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of left ventricular STE parameters. Measurements of right ventricular global longitudinal strain (RVGLS) and right ventricular free wall strain (RVfree) were observed to be lower in the asthma group (-20.3 ± 2.9 vs -21.5 ± 2.9, p = 0.007; -24.0 ± 3.0 vs 25.1 ± 2.9, p = 0.009, respectively).

CONCLUSION

-We demonstrated that while adult onset mild-stage asthma patients have normal parameters in standard echocardiography, they have reduced right ventricular functions by STE.

Assessment of lateral mitral, septal and tricuspid myocardial performance indices by tissue Doppler imaging in asthmatic children

INTRODUCTION

Recurrent hypoxia makes asthmatics at risk for pulmonary hypertension and ventricular dysfunction. Early stages of these cardiovascular diseases cannot be detected by conventional echocardiography. Tissue Doppler imaging has been introduced recently as a more sensitive and more accurate tool for investigating cardiovascular diseases.

OBJECTIVE

Investigating ventricular functions in asymptomatic asthmatic children using tissue Doppler echocardiography.

METHOD

Fifty asthmatic children and 50 controls were examined by conventional echocrdiography. Tissue Doppler echocardiography was performed to measure the myocardial performance (Tei) index at the lateral mitral, septal and tricuspid annuli.

RESULTS

Septal Tei indices among patients and uncontrolled asthmatics were significantly higher than healthy subjects and controlled asthmatics, respectively (P < 0.05). Septal and tricuspid Tei indices were significantly higher among severe asthmatics and patients with concomitant nasal allergy than those with mild asthma and those without concomitant nasal allergy, respectively (P < 0.05). Septal Tei index correlated negatively with daily inhaled corticosteroid dose (r = -0.412, P = 0.003) and forced expiratory volume in the 1st second/forced vital capacity (r = -0.877, P < 0.001). Lateral Tei index correlated positively with the patient age (r = 0.312, P = 0.027) and duration of asthma (r = 0.359, P = 0.011).

CONCLUSION

Tei index can detect subclinical ventricular dysfunction in asthmatics and is affected by asthma duration, control and severity. It can be used for future scoring of asthma severity. Septal annulus seems to be the best location for assessing Tei index in asthmatics.

Pilot study shows right ventricular diastolic function impairment in young children with obstructive respiratory disease

AIM

This study determined cardiovascular impairment in young children with obstructive respiratory disease who were assessed using the opening interrupter technique (RINT).

METHODS

This pilot study enrolled 41 children who had been referred to pulmonology and allergology specialists at the University of Catania, Italy, from March to July 2017: 23 (mean age 4.13 ± 0.62 years) had chronic coughs and wheezing and 18 controls (mean age 4.27 ± 0.66 years) had obstructive chest disease, but were otherwise healthy. Airway resistance was evaluated using RINT and cardiac function by studying the ejection fraction, pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP), tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion and tricuspid flow propagation velocity (TFPV).

RESULTS

The RINT and PASP values were significantly higher in the patient group when compared to the controls, but the TFPV values were lower. A direct and significant Spearman's correlation coefficient (r) between RINT and PASP values was observed (r = 0.81). We found a significant inverse correlation between RINT and TFPV (r = -0.83), as well as TFPV and PASP (r = -0.78).

CONCLUSION

This study showed that children with obstructive respiratory diseases had a major risk of cardiovascular impairment. Impaired diastolic function of the right ventricle occurred very early when airway resistance was abnormally increased.

Evaluation of the left and right ventricular systolic and diastolic function in asthmatic children

Background

Asthma is the most common cause of respiratory disorders among children. We aimed to investigate left (LV) and right (RV) ventricular function in asthmatic children as detected by conventional and tissue Doppler echocardiography.

Methods

Fifty pediatric patients with asthma and forty healthy children were studied. Pulmonary function tests, electrocardiography and echocardiographic examinations were performed on all children.

Results

Rate-corrected velocity of circumferential fiber shortening (VCFc) (p = 0.044), the ratio between heights of early and late diastolic flow velocity peaks (E/A) (p = 0.019) and LV end-systolic wall stress (ESWSm) was lower (p = 0.003), RV stroke volume (SV) (p = 0.002), LV SV (p = 0.001), tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (p = 0.034), tricuspid annular peak velocity during systole (S’) (p = 0.022), tricuspid and mitral early diastolic velocities (E’) (p = 0.012, p = 0.003 respectively) were lower in asthmatic children than controls. The mitral valve ejection time (ET) was high in asthmatic group (p = 0.027).

FEV1 was positively correlated with isovolumetric relaxation time (IVRT) (p = 0.018) (r = 0.382) and mitral ET (p = 0.018) (r = 0.381). PEF was negatively correlated with the RV work index (p = 0.032) (r = -0.348) and LV work index (p = 0.005) (r = -0.457).

Conclusion

Although cardiac systolic function was found to be impaired in asthmatic patients, contrary to the literature, diastolic dysfunction was not observed in these patients, even by tissue Doppler imaging, and this finding may be attributed to using inhaled corticosteroid