Background: Asthma is the most common cause of respiratory disorders among children. We aimed to investigate left (LV) and right (RV) ventricular function in asthmatic children as detected by conventional and tissue Doppler echocardiography.
Methods: Fifty pediatric patients with asthma and forty healthy children were studied. Pulmonary function tests, electrocardiography and echocardiographic examinations were performed on all children.
Results: Rate-corrected velocity of circumferential fiber shortening (VCFc) (p = 0.044), the ratio between heights of early and late diastolic flow velocity peaks (E/A) (p = 0.019) and LV end-systolic wall stress (ESWSm) was lower (p = 0.003), RV stroke volume (SV) (p = 0.002), LV SV (p = 0.001), tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (p = 0.034), tricuspid annular peak velocity during systole (S') (p = 0.022), tricuspid and mitral early diastolic velocities (E') (p = 0.012, p = 0.003 respectively) were lower in asthmatic children than controls. The mitral valve ejection time (ET) was high in asthmatic group (p = 0.027). FEV1 was positively correlated with isovolumetric relaxation time (IVRT) (p = 0.018) (r = 0.382) and mitral ET (p = 0.018) (r = 0.381). PEF was negatively correlated with the RV work index (p = 0.032) (r = -0.348) and LV work index (p = 0.005) (r = -0.457).
Conclusion: Although cardiac systolic function was found to be impaired in asthmatic patients, contrary to the literature, diastolic dysfunction was not observed in these patients, even by tissue Doppler imaging, and this finding may be attributed to using inhaled corticosteroid.
Keywords: Asthma; Children; Echocardiography; Tissue Doppler imaging; Ventricular function.