Cardiac Involvements in Patients with Celiac Disease by Doppler Tissue Echocardiography compared to Conventional Echocardiography

Background: Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune mediated gluten sensitive
enteropathy and cardiac involvement in CD children is frequent.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate cardiac involvements in patients with celiac
disease by using Doppler Tissue Echocardiography and conventional echocardiography
to identify myocardial dysfunctions in celiac patients compared to healthy individuals.
Patients and Methods: This case-control and approved study was performed on 120
children with celiac disease and 60 healthy children aged 1- 18 years old in a single
center. Patients with valvular disease, rhythm abnormality, CHD, malignancy, systemic
inflammatory diseases, diabetes mellitus, renal insufficiency, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease and hypertension were excluded from the study. The participants
underwent echocardiography. Data were analyzed through SPSS 17 using Student’s t-test
and Mann-Whitney U. A P value of < 0.05 was considered as significant.
Results: Out of 120 patients with celiac, 55.83% were females and for the control group
it was 43.33%. The participants in the case and control groups were matched for sex and
age. Weight and height showed significant differences between the groups. Right ejection
time had significant mean differences of 245.30 ± 24.60 and 253 ± 22.66 for the case and
control groups respectively with the t = -2.03 and P = 0.044. Similar trends were observed
for the left myocardial performance index by DTE with a mean of 0.79 ± 0.12 and 0.72
± 0.12 for the case and control groups, respectively (t-3.32, P = 0.001). QT and heart rate
by ECG and ET, IRT and MPI by DTE had significant differences in the case and control
groups. LA in diastole and LVM and Peak A velocity had significant differences in both
groups. ET, ICT, and IRT revealed significant differences in the case and control groups.
Conclusions: Consistent with many study’s results, we reached the conclusion that
Doppler Tissue Echocardiography and Conventional Echocardiography are good
determination methods of systolic and diastolic myocardial functions in patients with
celiac disease. Between these two methods, the present study confirmed the importance
and strong power for Doppler Tissue Echocardiography.