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Introduction: Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) is a new emerging method for evaluation of the cardiac systolic performance. We characterized left ventricular (LV) systolic functions of hypocalcemic infants, and assessed the effects of calcium and vitamin D supplementations on LV systolic functions using two‐dimensional STE. Patients and Methods: A prospective controlled study was conducted in Mansoura University Children's Hospital, Egypt from 2015 to 2018 including 88 hypocalcemic infants (patient group) and 30 healthy controls. We subdivided the patient group into vitamin D deficiency group (n = 32) and normal vitamin D group (n = 56). All infants were investigated for serum phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase and 25‐hydroxy vitamin D levels. Both patients and controls were initially evaluated for LV systolic functions using two‐dimensional STE. After correction of hypocalcemia and vitamin D deficiency, reevaluation of LV systolic functions was done for the patient group. Results: LV systolic strains were lower in the patient group than controls (p <.001). After recovery of hypocalcemia of the patients, we reported significant improvement of strains and significant reductions of the end‐diastolic and end‐systolic volumes of the left ventricle (p <.001). Global longitudinal and circumferential strains were lower in patients with vitamin D deficiency than patients with normal vitamin D levels (p <.001). The LV systolic strain improved after correction of vitamin D deficiency and hypocalcemia (p <.001). Conclusion: Two‐dimensional STE could detect and follow up early LV systolic dysfunction in infants with hypocalcemia and vitamin D deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate cardiac function in children with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on regular hemodialysis using speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) and correlate results with plasma glutathione level as a marker of oxidative stress. Methods: The study involved 30 children with ESRD and 30 healthy controls. The plasma glutathione and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were measured, and cardiac function was evaluated using conventional echocardiography and STE. Results: Plasma glutathione levels were significantly lower and CRP significantly higher in patients than in controls. Children with ESRD had significant systolic and diastolic cardiac dysfunctions detected by STE compared with controls. Conventional echocardiography failed to detect these dysfunctions. There was significant increase in left-ventricular relative wall thickness (LV-RWT) in patients, especially those with hypertension, compared with the control group. There was also significant impairment of LV and right-ventricular (RV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) and torsion; however, LV-GLS was significantly better in hypertensive than in normotensive patients. The degree of impairment in GLS and cardiac torsion negatively correlated with plasma glutathione levels. Conclusion: Significant oxidative stress was present in children with ESRD and was correlated with the degree of cardiac dysfunction detected early using the new cardiac imaging modality, STE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]