Exclusion criteria
  1. Patients with acute AR or decompensated valvular failure
  2. Other concomitant valvular diseases of more than mild in severity,
  3. Known ischemic heart disease,
  4. Chronic pulmonary obstructive disease
  5. Previous cardiac or valve surgery,
  6. Reduced LVEF (≤50%), and
  7. Inadequate echocardiographic data for 2D-STE analysis were excluded.