Speckle tracking echocardiography and β-thalassemia major. A systematic review.

Heart disease is among the primary causes of morbidity and mortality in β-thalassemia major (β-TM). Conventional echocardiography has failed to identify myocardial dysfunction at an early stage among these patients, thus speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) has been lately used. The objectives of this review were to 1) identify all published studies having evaluated myocardial strain among β-TM patients, 2) gather their results, 3) compare their findings and 4) propose recommendations based on these data.

Left atrial deformation indices in β-thalassemia major patients.

The presence of atrial cardiomyopathy in β-thalassemia major (β-TM) patients complicates their clinical condition. The diagnosis is challenging even with cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging. Novel echocardiographic techniques are applied to increase the diagnostic yield.

Twelve-lead and signal-averaged electrocardiographic parameters among beta-thalassemia major patients.

Background: The majority of beta thalassemia major (β-TM) patients suffer from cardiac disease, while a significant proportion of them die suddenly. Twelve-lead and signal-averaged electrocardiography (SAECG) are simple, inexpensive, readily available tools for identifying an unfavorable arrhythmiological substrate by detecting the presence of arrhythmias, conduction abnormalities, and late potentials (LPs) in these patients.

Methods: A total of 47 β-TM patients and 30 healthy controls were submitted to 12-lead and signal-averaged electrocardiography.