الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract -Obesity is a chronic metabolic disorder associated with cardiovascular disease and increased morbidity and mortality. It is apparent that a variety of adaptations/alterations in cardiac structure and function occur as excessive adipose tissue accumulates. Overt systolic and diastolic dysfunction has been described in obesity. New findings, indicating the occurrence of pre-clinical systolic and diastolic dysfunction, even in young obese patients,suggest that obese patients should be carefully monitored in order to detect incipient dysfunction. Since traditional echocardiographic measurements of ventricular function, such as ejection fraction, fractional shortening and mitral inflow are load-dependent, the investigation of right and left ventricle subclinical dysfunction in obesity by sensitive newer echocardiographic techniques, such as tissue Doppler imaging, myocardial strain and strain rate looks like very promising. These techniques permit a quantitative assessment of both global and regional function and timing of myocardial events as well as the assessment of early changes in systolic and diastolic function. Early detection of cardiovascular abnormalities is very important because the control of this process seems to be more effective during the initial stages of the disease. |