Evaluation of Atrial Conduction Times, Epicardial Fat Thickness and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in Patients With Ankylosing Spondylitis

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to determine the relationship between atrial electromechanical delay (EMD), carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), and epicardial fat thickness (EFT) in ankylosing spondylitis (AS), which has a complicated inflammatory nature. Patients and methods:The study population included 42 consecutive patients with AS (28 males, 14 females; mean age 39.3±8.5 years; range 22 to 60 years) and 40 healthy subjects as controls (24 males, 16 females; mean age 37.2±8.7 years; range 22 to 60 years) (p>0.05). All patients underwent a standard tissue Doppler echocardiography to assess the left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, atrial EMD, CIMT, and EFT. All values were compared between the groups. Results: Interatrial (29.5±5.8 ms vs. 17.9±5.3 ms) left and right intraatrial EMD (18.2±4.6 ms and 11.7±3.5 ms vs. 11.9±3.2 ms and 7.1±3.2 ms, respectively) intervals were longer in AS patients than in healthy controls (all p<0.001). Left and right CIMT (0.50±0.11 mm and 0.44±0.06 mm vs. 0.51±0.11 mm and 0.43±0.04 mm, respectively) and EFT (0.73±0.15 cm and 0.63±0.07 cm) values were higher in AS patients than in healthy controls (all p<0.01). Conclusion: To our best knowledge, this is the first report evaluating the atrial EMD, CIMT, and EFT values together in AS patients. As indicators of cardiovascular involvement, all parameters were higher in AS patients.

Observation of the Clinical Correlation between Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Hypertensive Patients under Microscope Images

“…In a case study, there are 43 patients with documented primary HTN and 43 healthy individuals as witnesses [23]. Controlled by drug management [24,25], with an average age of 53.9 years, Saburia assessed the average contact thickness (IMT) of the internal carotid and common carotid arteries and the outer midline [26,27]. The study selected too few use cases to fully prove the case.…”