Search

Elderly population rate rises all around the world. Increased life time due to improvements in the treatment of diseases which have high mortality rates, getting easier to reach healthcare services and getting widespread of the antibiotic use is the main cause underlying the increase of geriatric population. Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in the overall population. It is well known that the incidence of cardiovascular diseases increases with ageing. Anatomic and functional changes occur in the cardiovascular system as well as all other organ systems with senescence and only some of these changes can be detected clinically while others stay in the subclinical course. Echocardiography is an important option owing to be able to detect most of these changes.

Background/aim: Little is known about the prevalence and causes of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in Behçet's disease (BD). This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and causes of PH in BD. Materials and methods: In this descriptive study, we screened 154 patients with BD for PH using transthoracic echocardiography between February 2017 and October 2017. An estimated systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (sPAP = 40 mmHg) was used as the cutoff value to define PH. Patients with BD were categorized into 5 groups according to organ involvement including mucocutaneous/articular, ocular, vascular, gastrointestinal, and neurologic involvement. Additional laboratory and imaging results were obtained from hospital file records to determine the causes of PH. Results: PH was detected in 17 (11%) patients. Nine (52.9%) of these patients had group II PH (due to left heart disease), 4 (23.5%) had IV PH (due to pulmonary arterial involvement), and 1 had III PH (due to chronic obstructive lung disease). The frequency of PH was higher in BD patients with vascular involvement than those without (52.9% vs 28.5%; p = 0.04). Among 10 patients with pulmonary artery involvement (PAI) 4 (40%) had PH. Although the vascular BD group had the highest rate of PH, we observed no statistically significant difference in the frequency of PH between the predefined BD subgroups. Conclusions: PH is not rare in patients with BD. The majority of BD patients with PH are in group II or IV PH. Patients with vascular involvement carry a higher risk for the development of PH. Monitoring BD patients with PAI should be considered for the development of group IV PH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Empagliflozin is a selective SGLT2 inhibitor and provides a significant reduction in hospitalizations in heart failure patients and a reduction in combined cardiovascular deaths regardless of diabetes. The mechanisms of favorable effects remain unclear. Improvement in left ventricular diastolic function and a decrease in filling pressure are any mechanisms of positive effects. These effects may show themselves with some changes on the electrocardiography (ECG). So, we aimed to evaluate the effect of empagliflozin on P wave parameters in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients without HF. Method: Fifty‐three patients were included in the study. The electrocardiographic and echocardiographic evaluations were examined at the baseline and end of the third month for all patients. Results: The median age of all patients was 55 (45–64 IQR). After treatment, LA volume (p <.001) and diameter (p =.001) in both the parasternal long‐axis (p =.001) and the apical four‐chamber view decreased. E/e′ and systolic pulmonary arterial pressure were significantly decreased after treatment. P wave duration max,min, PWDmin, and PWdis were significantly shorter after treatment. The P wave peak time (PWPT) in lead Dıı and V1 were significantly shorter after treatment. Conclusion: We found shortening of PWPT, PWdis, and PWD as reflections of improvements in left atrial volume and LV diastolic function on ECG after empagliflozin treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archives of the Turkish Society of Cardiology / Türk Kardiyoloji Derneği Arşivi is the property of KARE Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)