Evaluation of Right Ventricular Function by Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis: A Case-Control Study.

Background: We aimed to evaluate the right ventricular (RV) systolic function in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) compared to healthy subjects by using standard echocardiography and speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) methods.

Methods: This was a case-control study in which 64 patients (mean age, 55.7 ± 9.2 years; male/female, 53/11), who had AS for at least five years (mean disease duration, 7.1 ± 2.6 years) and 70 age-matched healthy subjects (mean age, 54.9 ± 8.5 years; male/female 55/15) were included. Clinical and laboratory signs of cardiac disease were recorded. The RV systolic function was assessed by standard echocardiography and two-dimensional STE method.

Results: Case and control groups did not show significant difference in terms of clinical and laboratory signs of cardiac disease. RV function parameters in standard echocardiography were statistically similar between AS patients and control subjects. However, RV parameters in STE revealed significantly impaired RV function in AS patients compared to control group. RV-free wall longitudinal strain, RV-free wall longitudinal systolic strain rate, RV-free wall longitudinal early diastolic strain rate, RV-free wall longitudinal late diastolic strain rate were lower, and RV-early diastolic strain rate/RV-late diastolic strain rate ratio was higher for the patients in the AS group (p < 0.001 for all).

Conclusions: AS is associated with impaired RV function as shown by STE even if there is no clinical or laboratory sign of cardiac abnormality. STE is more effective than standard echocardiography to detect RV function. Therefore we suggest regular evaluation of RV function in patients with AS.