Tissue doppler echocardiography detects preclinical markers of cardiac lesion in MDS patients.

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorder of elderly people. Cardiac dysfunction is a marker of grim prognosis in MDS. We evaluated cardiac dysfunction of MDS patients with or without transfusion dependency by tissue doppler echocardiography. We found the average values of ventricular end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes in transfusion dependency MDS group higher than others. These results were strongly correlated to hemoglobin levels. Tissue Doppler Echocardiography should be routinely performed in MDS patients to detect preclinical cardiac alterations and prevent more heart insults in this group of chronic anemic aged patients.