Role of Resting Electrocardiography and Transthoracic Echocardiography in the Diagnosis of Cardiac Impairments in Type 2 Diabetics

Background: The cardiac changes associated with diabetes are thought to comprise thickening of the myocardium and is characterized by predominantly diastolic dysfunction (DD), the diabetic cardiomyopathy. So, this study aimed to evaluate cardiac impairments in patients in delta region with type 2 diabetes mellitus using resting electrocardiogram (ECG) and resting transthoracic echocardiography.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out on 50 diabetic patients to evaluate of cardiac impairments in patients in delta region with type 2 diabetes mellitus using resting ECG and resting transthoracic echocardiography at the Department of Cardiology, Tanta University Hospitals in a period of six months starting from January 2020 till June 2020.

Results: There were significant negative correlations between abnormal echocardiography with (body mass index) BMI, duration of diabetes and systolic blood pressure (SBP) (P<0.05). The sensitivity of ejection fraction (EF), early trans-mitral flow velocity (E), atrial trans-mitral flow velocity (A) and E/A in detecting cardiac changes in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) was 68%, 52%, 76%, 72% and specificity was 52%, 68%, 36%, 30% at cut-off value 65, 75, 65, 77.5 and AUC 0.619, 0.606, 0.538, 0.534, respectively (P> 0.05).

Conclusions: The effect of DM on the left ventricular (LV) diastolic function is still controversial. Therefore, they need to be further substantiated, preferably with evidence from extensive longitudinal studies in people with type 2 diabetes representative of type 2 diabetes healthcare populations. Echocardiographic and ECG abnormalities are very common in outpatients with type 2 diabetes. DD is the main cardiac impairment caused by DM.