Echocardiography
Echocardiograms were obtained according to a standardised protocol on a
Phillips iE 33 machine (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) equipped with an
S5-1 transducer that transmits a frequency of 1.7 MHz. and receives a
frequency of 3.4 MHz. All data were analysed offline after being
transferred to an Xcelera workstation (Philips). The RALS analysis was
performed separately offline using Philips Qlab station 9.0software.