Abstract

Background
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease, characterised by chronic inflammatory changes. Pro inflammatory cytokines released in RA has a negative impact of cardiac health. Individuals with RA have shorter life expectancy and their risk of cardiovascular death is more than 50 % higher than that of the rest of the population. Early myocardial dysfunction in RA patients may be detectable sooner using speckle-tracking echocardiography.
Materials and methods
This cross sectional study was conducted in 65 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 65 healthy controls (mean age = 36 years) at a tertiary health care centre. Two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiograms were performed on all subjects. Strain analysis was done by speckle-tracking echocardiography.
Results
Statistical analyses was performed by using a statistical software package SPSS, version 20.0. The level of CRP and ESR were found to be higher in cases when compared with controls and it is statistically significant. (p=0.002 and p = 0.001 respectively).The mean GLS values in cases were comparatively lesser than controls and it was statistically significant (p =0.001). Duration of RA more than 5 years had significant impact on GLS and they had reduced GLS when compared with the subjects who has less than 5 years of disease.
Conclusion
Patients with RA and no clinical CV disease have reduced LV systolic function as shown by lower GLS. It is associated with disease activity and RA disease duration. Routine Speckle-tracking method can be employed regularly in RA patients for early detection and treatment