Biventricular impairment in diastolic function in acromegaly

Objective. Left ventricle impairment is very common in acromegaly. Concentr ic hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction are observed at an early stage. La te left ventricle dilatation with systolic dysfunction may appear. Few repo rts have studied right ventricle diastolic function. Methods. Twenty-seven acromegalic patients were included. Biventricular dia stolic function was assessed using Doppler-echocardiography. Possible assoc iations with hormonal activity, evolution time of illness, hypertension, le ft ventricular hypertrophy and systolic impairment on echocardiography were studied. Results. Fifteen patients showed left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, wh ereas thirteen patients showed right ventricular diastolic dysfunction. A g ood correlation was observed between E/A relation of both ventricles (r = 0 .70; p < 0.01) and isovolumetric relaxation time (r = -0.60; p < 0.01). The right ventricular EIA relation correlated with left ventricular mass index and significance was almost achieved with the presence of hypertension. Th ere was no statistical correlations between the right ventricular E/A relat ion and hormone values or evolution time of illness. The left ventricular E /A relation showed a significant association with left ventricular mass ind ex, isovolumetric time index and evolution time of illness. There were no s tatistical association with hormone values. Conclusions. The high prevalence of right ventricular diastolic dysfunction observed in acromegaly suggests the presence of acromegalic myocardiopathy .