echocardiographic abnormalities in 52 Iraqi patients with rheumatoid arithritis

ABSTRACT

To study the prevalence of echocardiographic findings in unselected population of patients with rheumatoid arthritis [RA] Fifty two RA patients and fifty two normal healthy people assessed clinically, Echo Cardiografically, ECG, pulmonary function tests and laboratory investigations. Two-dimensional echocardiography demonstrated significant cardiac disease in [59%] of patients in form of right ventricular dilatation [25%], left ventricular dilatation [11.5%], left atrial dilatation [3.8%], mitral valve abnormalities [11.5%] [M.V. regurgitation, M.V. thickening, M.V. prolapsed, M.V. stenosis], septal hypertrophy [5.8%], diastolic pressure dysfunction[5.8%], thick aortic calcified cusps [3.8%], aortic regurgitation[5.8%], mild pericardial effusion[13.5%], tricuspid Regurgitation [11.5%] and raised pulmonary artery pressure above 30 mmHg [3.8%].The normal healthy people had only two people one had M.V. regurgitation and the other had mild M.V. prolapse and there were no other abnormalities in [ECG] of [PFT]. Wide and frequent varieties of echocardiographic cardiac abnormalities were found in an unselected population of patients with RA, using Doppler echocardiography giving different grades of severity of cardiac manifestation