Subtle Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction in Asymptomatic Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Assessed by Two-Dimensional Speckle Tracking Echocardiography in Relationship with Albuminuria

Abstract

SUMMARY C ardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the most common co-morbidities and causes of death in patients with diabetes mellitus. Diabetic cardiomyopathy refers to myocardial dysfunction independent of coronary artery disease. Speckle-tracking echocardiography is an imaging technique developed as a method to objectively quantify myocardial function and analyzes cardiac motion and deformation by tracking naturally occurring speckle patterns in the myocardium. Albuminuria is known to be associated with increased left ventricular (LV) mass, the more specific structural or functional changes in the heart that underlie these phenomena remain unclear.