Assessment of left atrial mechanical functions and atrial electromechanical delay in Juvenile idiopathic arthritis by tissue Doppler echocardiography.

Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a systemic chronic inflammatory disease. Studies using tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) for the evaluation of cardiac functions of children with JIA are limited. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate Left ventricular function, left atrial mechanical functions and atrial electromechanical delay in JIA.

Subclinical atherosclerosis in obese adolescents with normal left ventricular function.

Objective: To assess the impact of obesity on carotid intima media thickness and left ventricular (LV) mass in obese adolescents.

Methods: The study included 52 obese adolescents (mean age 14.16+/-2.