RESUMO
The incidence of ischemic heart disease is well documented in the literature in post menopausal women but the degree of deterioration of left ventricular performance in estrogen deficient state in women is not very clear. The present study was conducted to find the left ventricular performance by recording systolic time intervals (STIs) in 50 post menopausal women having either natural or surgical menopause and that was compared with 25 premenopausal controls. There was significant (P<0.01) increase in QS2-I, PEP-I and PEP/LVET ratio but significant (P<0.01) decrease in LVETI in surgical menopause group whereas the natural menopause group showed less increase in QS2-I (P<0.05), PEP/LVET ratio (P<0.01) and decrease (P<0.01) in LVET-1. Thus, the performance of left ventricle is more affected in surgical menopause group as compared to natural menopause group. The ventricular dysfunction was observed by STIs prior to the appearance of clinical signs and symptoms.