Determinants of the heart rate variability in type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Background: Evaluation of heart rate variability (HRV) detects the early subclinical alterations of the autonomic nervous system. Thus, impaired HRV is the earliest subclinical marker of cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM).

Objectives: We aimed to explore the HRV parameters in asymptomatic T1DM patients and compare them with the results obtained in healthy subjects.

Quality of glycemic control has significant impact on myocardial mechanics in type 1 diabetes mellitus.

The potential associations between disease duration, glycemic control, and the echocardiographic markers of the myocardial mechanics were investigated in asymptomatic T1DM patients. Seventy T1DM patients (38.2 ± 11.

Prognostic value of right atrial stiffness in systemic sclerosis.

Objectives: We hypothesised that right atrial (RA) size and mechanics may have prognostic role in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients without manifest pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), thus we aimed to investigate the prognostic power of RA volume, strain and stiffness parameters alone and when added to the echocardiographic marker of RV longitudinal systolic function.

Methods: Seventy SSc patients (57±12 years) were enrolled into our follow-up study. They underwent standard echocardiographic and tissue Doppler measurements at baseline.

Galectin-3 and sST2: associations to the echocardiographic markers of the myocardial mechanics in systemic sclerosis - a pilot study.

Background: Progressive cardiac fibrosis is the central aspect of the myocardial involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc). We hypothesized that circulating biomarkers of the cardiac fibrosis may be useful in the early diagnosis of the cardiac manifestation in this disease. Thus, we investigated the potential correlations between the levels of galectin-3, soluble suppression of tumorigenicity-2 (sST2) and the echocardiographic markers of the myocardial mechanics in SSc patients.

Diastolic Dysfunction Is a Contributing Factor to Exercise Intolerance in COPD.

Right ventricular (RV) systolic failure is rare in patients with COPD, but they often develop RV diastolic dysfunction. Left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction is also common in this population. Nevertheless, data are scarce regarding the effect of diastolic dysfunction on the functional capacity in patients with COPD.