الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease, characterised by chronic joint inflammation and destruction. Extra-articular organ involvement, such as the skin, eyes, heart, lungs, and blood vessels may also cause clinically significant pathology and affect clinical outcomes and quality of life. Although the pathophysiologic mechanism is not clearly defined, the chronic inflammatory state of RA itself seems to play a pivotal role in both vascular changes and impaired myocardial function. So this study aimed to assess the left ventricular function in RA patients using 2D speckled echocardiography.
In the current study, 20% of RA patients with DAS 28 score < 3.2 on monotherapy, 40% on double therapy and 40% on triple therapy, while no RA patients with DAS 28 score < 3.2 on monotherapy, 10% on double therapy and 90% on triple therapy. In the present study, cardiac chamber sizes including the left ventricle and left atrium were hypertrophied among RA group (in normal range) with insignificant differences.
Our study results found that GLSs in patients were significantly lower in RA patients group with DAS 28 score > 3.2. We did not find any LVH or diastolic dysfunction among our study patients.
In our study, GLS showed statistical significant negative (indirect) moderate correlations with disease duration, DAS 28 score ESR, DAS 28 score.
Analysis model of current study showed that factors such as age and inflammatory markers (ESR and CRP) were not associated with LVSD. Their effects may have been masked as they were likely incorporated into DAS28-CRP and duration of disease.
In conclusion, we found that patients with RA with high disease activity