Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

Abstract

ABSTRACT:
OBJECTIVE:
To study the prevalence of echocardiographic findings in unselected population of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
METHODS:
Fifty two RA patients and fifty two normal healthy people assessed clinically, Echo Cardiografically, ECG, pulmonary function tests and laboratory investigations.
RESULTS:
Two-dimensional echocardiography demonstrated significant cardiac disease in (59%) of patients in form of right ventricular dilatation (25%), left ventricular dilatation (11.5%), left atrial dilatation (3.8%), mitral valve abnormalities (11.5%)(M.V.regurgitation, M.V.thickening, M.V.prolapsed, M.V.stenosis), septal hypertrophy(5.8%), diastolic pressure dysfunction(5.8%), thick aortic calcified cusps(3.8%), aortic regurgitation(5.8%), mild pericardial effusion(13.5%), tricuspid Regurgitation (11.5%) and raised pulmonary artery pressure above 30 mmHg (3.8%).The normal healthy people had only two people one had M.V.regurgitation and the other had mild M.V.prolapse and there were no other abnormalities in (ECG) of (PFT).
CONCLUSION:
Wide and frequent varieties of echocardiographic cardiac abnormalities were found in an unselected population of patients with RA, using Doppler echocardiography giving different grades of severity of cardiac manifestation