Düzce Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi (May 2010)
Evaluation of Cardiovascular System in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: Tissue Doppler Echocardiographic Investigation
Abstract
Aim: We aim to investigate besides the cardiac structures and functions by both conventionalmethods and Tissue Doppler Echocardiography (TDE) which is a new and useful method inpatients with Fibromyalgia (FM). Additionally, we evaluated QT parameters (QT maximum,QT minimum and QT dispertion) with the use of electrocardiography in order to measure theautonomic dysfunction which is a possible mechanism in the pathogenesis of the disease. Methods: The study was performed on 42 patients (mean age 41 years, 38 female) and 38completely healthy subjects (35 female, mean age of 42 years) who were admitted to the sameclinic were collected as the control group. All the individuals were undergone a completephysical examination, electrocardiography (recordings were displayed at 50 mm/s speed) andechocardiography evaluation (both conventional methods and TDE).Results: Analysis of electrocardiographic recordings revealed mildly increased mean QTdispertion in the patient group, but this difference was statistically insignificant. Analysis ofconventional echocardiographic parameters revealed similar results between the patient groupand the control cases. However, an important finding of this study is that significant diastolicdysfunction was found in the patient group which was recorded with the TDE technique. Emwave velocity and Em/Am ratios were significantly lower in patients with FM compared withcontrols (p<0.005, p<0.01, respectively). Sm and Am waves velocities were similar in bothgroups. Conclusion: In this study, significant left ventricular diastolic dysfunction which was detectedby TDE technique can partly explain several symptoms such as fatigue and dyspnea in FM. Inaddition, fully cardiac evaluation of patients with FM might be obtained supporting findingsthe autonomic dysfunction theory in fibromyalgia pathogenesis.
