Subclinical myocardial impairment in SLE: insights from novel ultrasound techniques and clinical determinants.

Aims: Myocardial damage is frequent and often silent in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of myocardial damage by novel ultrasound techniques and to systematically assess the relationship between subclinical cardiac dysfunction and SLE-related clinical parameters.

Material And Methods: Seventy-five consecutive SLE patients without evidence of cardiac disease and seventy-three controls underwent standard transthoracic echocardiography using classical and novel ultrasound techniques: tissue Doppler imaging and speckle tracking echocardiography.

Cardiac involvement in systemic sclerosis.

Primary myocardial involvement is common in systemic sclerosis and affects the prognosis of the disease when it is clinically evident. The exact mechanism leading to the myocardial fibrosis in systemic sclerosis remains unknown. Its detection depends, at least in part, on the sensitivity of the diagnostic methods used.