Evaluation of heart functions in patients with systemic lupus erythematosis

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown origin, which may affect the skin, kidneys, lungs, joints, nervous system, serous membranes and other organs and tissues. Pericarditis is the most common cardiac problem in children with SLE. Out of pericarditis other manifestations such as myocarditis, valvular diseases and coronary artery disease may develop. Cardiac anomalies usually do not give clinical signs. Subclinical cases are thought to be higher than detected. Although systolic and diastolic disorders are generally associated, there are very few Doppler echocardiographic variables that combine systolic and diastolic measurements. Recently, a new Doppler echocardiographic index that combines systolic and diastolic performance is emphasized. This index was first used by Tei and his friends on systolic and diastolic functions of the left ventricle were noninvasively estimated. The myocardial performance index was defined as the ratio of isovolumetric relaxation time and isovolumetric contraction time to ejection time. The aim of our study was to evaulate cardiac functions of pediatric patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and to determine early disfunction in patients when the were asymptomatic. This study included 20 children with systemic lupus erythematosus who were come to the Pediatric Rheumatology Outpatient Clinic of Fırat University Hospital between 2015-2018. The control group consisted of 36 healthy children who applied to the Pediatric Cardiology Outpatient Clinic. The patient group consisted of 5 male patients and 15 female patients. The control group consisted of 13 male and 23 female patients. There was no significant difference between the control group and the SLE group in terms of demographic characteristics such as height, weight and body mass index. Five patients with SLE nephritis, 1 haemolytic anemia and 1 hypertension with left ventricular hypertrophy were found in the patient group. There was no significant difference between the ejection fraction values in conventional echocardiography (p> 0.05). Myocardial perfusion index with cardiac tissue Doppler was significantly increased in SLE group (p <0.05). We thought that this increase may be due to the damage caused by the inflammatory load on the myocardium. Keywords: Systemic lupus erythematosus, tissue Doppler echocardiography, early cardiac dysfunction