Myocardial Dysfunction in Early Diabetes Patients with Microalbuminuria: A 2-Dimensional Speckle Tracking Strain Study

The aim of this study was to assess myocardial dysfunction in primary diabetes patients with microalbuminuria by 2-dimensional speckle tracking strain. Sixty-two patients with diabetes with or without hypertension and 37 matched hypertension controls were consecutively recruited from January 2011 to 2013. Routine physical examinations, laboratory tests, and echocardiography were performed in all patients. Subjects enrolled were divided into three groups according to history and urine albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR): group I: patients with only hypertension and normoalbuminuria (ACR < 30 mg/g), group II: patients with both hypertension and diabetes and normoalbuminuria (ACR < 30 mg/g), and group III: patients with both hypertension and diabetes and microalbuminuria (ACR 30–300 mg/g). Echocardiographic images of three cardiac cycles were acquired for off-line analysis using the GE EchoPAC software. Indices of cardiac function, including longitudinal, radial and circumferential strains, torsion, and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were assessed. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 13.0. Finally, 56 subjects and 32 controls were included in the analyses. There was no significant difference in age, gender, heart rate, BMI, and LVEF among groups, except for the blood pressure, ACR, and HbA1c. E wave, A wave, EDT, E m, and E/E m in group III were different with those in group I. Mean longitudinal strain (mSL), average SL of six segments in 4-chamber apical view (SL4) decreased obviously. The peak circumferential strain decreased in group III, while the torsion was compensatively increased. ACR was negatively related to mSL, SL4, E/E m, and positively related to torsion. We deduced that ACR maybe a predictor for myocardial damage in primary diabetes.