Prediction of subtle left ventricular systolic dysfunction in homozygous and heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia: Genetic analyses and speckle tracking echocardiography study.

Background And Aims: Few studies have shown the direct effect of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) on myocardial systolic function. Studies focused on heterozygote FH patients but not homozygote ones, and they did not perform genetic analyses. We aimed to evaluate all types of patients with FH using the potentially more sensitive speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) technique to identify early left ventricular (LV) dysfunction.