Baseline Echocardiography and Diastolic Function Assessment
All patients underwent resting transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) for
analysis of LV function, assessment of LV diastolic function and
exclusion of existing valvular pathologies using standard
echocardiographic views. Early diastolic transmitral filling velocity
(E) was measured at the mitral valve leaflets tips using pulsed-wave
doppler while spectral tissue doppler imaging was used to measure early
diastolic relaxation velocities (e’) at the septal mitral annulus from
the apical four-chamber window as previously
described.8 LV diastolic function was measured using
septal mitral annular E/e’ ratio (the ratio between early mitral inflow
velocity and mitral annular early diastolic velocity). Elevated LV
filling pressures were defined as septal mitral annular E/e’ ratio ≥
15.8