Table 1.
Comparison of echocardiographic indices between patients and controls at rest and under dobutamine stress (left hand columns), and comparison of indices between first and second echocardiographic assessment in “normal” and “abnormal” subsets (right hand columns)
| Initial assessment | First versus second assessments | |||||||
| Baseline | Dobutamine stress | Normal subset | Abnormal subset | |||||
| Variables | Patients (n=26) | Controls (n=20) | Patients (n=26) | Controls (n=20) | First assessment (n=14) | Second assessment (n=14) | First assessment (n=10) | Second assessment (n=10) |
| RR (s) | 0.80 (0.15) | 0.79 (0.16) | 0.78 (0.13)** | 0.70 (0.13) | 0.82 (0.16) | 0.82 (0.14) | 0.77 (0.15) | 0.71 (0.14) |
| ET (s) | 0.30 (0.03) | 0.30 (0.03) | 0.29 (0.05)** | 0.26 (0.04) | 0.30 (0.02) | 0.29 (0.04) | 0.31 (0.03) | 0.33 (0.03) |
| FS (%) | 0.38 (0.05) | 0.41 (0.05) | 0.47 (0.07)*** | 0.54 (0.04) | 0.38 (0.05) | 0.35 (0.05) | 0.35 (0.02) | 0.32 (0.04)* |
| EF (%) | 0.76 (0.06) | 0.80 (0.06) | 0.84 (0.08)*** | 0.90 (0.03) | 0.76 (0.07) | 0.71 (0.07) | 0.76 (0.05) | 0.68 (0.06)*** |
| Vcfc (circ/s) | 1.11 (0.16) | 1.23 (0.21) | 1.42 (0.24)*** | 1.73 (0.26) | 1.13 (0.16) | 1.09 (0.15) | 1.08 (0.17) | 0.82 (0.11)*** |
| WS (g/cm2) | 64.34 (14.23) | 72.67 (11.65) | 59.89 (22.80)** | 46.18 (15.57) | 65.03 (16.38) | 72.89 (14.68) | 63.11 (11.90) | 60.10 (9.62) |
| Ferritin (μmol/l) | – | – | – | – | 4253 (792) | 4935 (831) | 5647 (769) | 6741 (1347)* |
Values are mean (SD).
*p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.
EF, ejection fraction; ET, ejection time; FS, fractional shortening; RR, RR interval; Vcfc, rate corrected velocity of circumferential fibre shortening; WS; meridional wall stress.