Right ventricular and right atrial function and deformation in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism: a two- and three-dimensional echocardiographic study.

BACKGROUND: We sought to investigate right ventricular (RV) function and deformation assessed by three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) and speckle tracking in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism (SHT), and to evaluate the influence of levothyroxine (L-T4) therapy on RV remodeling. METHODS: We included 50 untreated women with SHT and 45 healthy control women matched by age. The L-T4 therapy was prescribed to all SHT patients who were followed 1 year after euthyroid status was achieved. All study participants underwent laboratory analyses which included thyroid hormone levels, and complete two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) and 3DE examinations. RESULTS: 3DE RV end-diastolic volume and ejection fraction were significantly reduced in the SHT patients before therapy in comparison with the healthy controls and treated SHT subjects. RV longitudinal strain, systolic, and early diastolic strain rates (SRs) were significantly decreased, whereas RV late diastolic SR was increased in the SHT patients before therapy when comparing with the controls. 2DE speckle tracking imaging revealed that L-T4 substitution therapy significantly improved RV systolic mechanics, whereas RV diastolic deformation was not completely recovered. Right atrial (RA) function and deformation were significantly impacted by SHT. Replacement L-T4 treatment improved but did not completely restore RA mechanics in the SHT patients. CONCLUSION: RV and RA function and mechanics are significantly affected by SHT. L-T4 therapy and 1-year maintenance of euthyroid status improved but did not completely recover RV and RA function and deformation in the SHT patients, which implies that right heart remodeling caused by SHT is not reversible in a 1-year period.

[Utero- and fetoplacental hemodynamic measurements with low dose aspirin]. / Utero- und fetoplazentare hämodynamische Messungen unter low-dose Aspirin.

A prospective randomized double-blind study of low-dose aspirin treatment (100 mg/d) was conducted on a population of 43 pregnant women at risk of pregnancy-induced hypertension, preeclampsia, intrauterine growth retardation. Doppler ultrasound blood flow measurements of the uterine arteries and the umbilical cord, at the fetal and placental end, were obtained on a two-weekly interval in between 18 to 40 weeks of gestation. During the course of pregnancy Doppler indices of both vessels decreased, whereas the absolute velocity of the uterine arteries increased. Perfusion of both vessels did not show any relevant differences in between the aspirin- and placebo-group. Both groups showed a similar median duration of gestation at time of delivery (278 d aspirin vs. 270 d placebo). Comparison of median birthweight (3152.5 g aspirin vs. 2900 g placebo) did not show any significant difference. There were no haemodynamic effects of low-dose aspirin on the utero- and fetoplacental circulation to be demonstrated.