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The Effect of Bronchial Asthma on Interatrial Electromechanical Delay Coupling Obtained Using Tissue Doppler Imaging
Yazdan Ghandi1, Danial Habibi2, Mohammad Abasi3
1Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran.
Insights
Pediatric asthma patients exhibit prolonged atrial electromechanical delay, specifically in intra-right atrial conduction time (IRCT) and interatrial conduction time (IACT). These delays correlate with right ventricular myocardial performance but not with diastolic parameters.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Pediatric Pulmonology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Asthma is a known risk factor for atrial fibrillation.
- Asthma impacts the electrical activity of the atria.
- Atrial electromechanical delay may be an indicator of atrial dysfunction in asthmatic children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess atrial electromechanical delay in children with asthma.
- To evaluate the relationship between atrial conduction times and right ventricular function in pediatric asthma.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study compared 50 children with asthma to 50 healthy controls.
- Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) was used to measure intra-right atrial conduction time (IRCT) and interatrial conduction time (IACT).
- Pulmonary function tests and echocardiography assessed cardiac and pulmonary function.
Main Results:
- Children with asthma showed significantly prolonged IRCT and IACT compared to controls.
- No significant differences in diastolic right ventricular function were observed via Doppler.
- IRCT and IACT correlated with the right ventricular myocardial performance index.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric asthma is associated with prolonged intra-right atrial and interatrial conduction times.
- Atrial electromechanical delay in asthmatic children correlates with right ventricular performance.
- Diastolic TDI parameters were not found to be related to these atrial delays.
Background:
Asthma is a predisposing factor for the development of atrial fibrillation. Asthma disturbs the electrophysiology in the right and left atrium. The aim of this study was to evaluate atrial electromechanical delay by coupling obtained from tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in children.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 50 patients with Bronchial Asthma, compared with 50 healthy children. The intra-right atrial conduction time (IRCT), intra-left atrial conduction time (ILCT), and interatrial conduction time (IACT) were calculated. The function of systolic and diastolic right ventricular (RV) was assessed by TDI, conventional echocardiography, and pulse Doppler wave. The pulmonary function test was carried out for all the subjects by spirometry. We used an independent Student's t test and Pearson's correlation test for analyzing the data.
Results:
The findings revealed normal shape in both atrial between the two groups. The diastolic RV function was not significantly different between the subjects as measured by the pulse wave Doppler in the tricuspid flow. Patients in the experimental group had significantly higher intra and interatrial electromechanical delays (P=0.007) than the control group. This difference was statistically significant with regard to IRCT (P=0.0001) and IACT (P=0.005). IRCT/IACT and myocardia performance index (r=0.35, P=0.004; and r=0.52, P=0.008) correlated with isovolumetric relaxation time (r=0.46, P=0.003; and r=0.58, P=0.008).
Conclusion:
We found that IRCT and IACT prolonged in pediatrics with asthma. Also, it was found that there was a correlation between IRCT and IACT, on one hand, and RV myocardial performance index, on the other hand, but they were not related to TDI diastolic parameters.
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