Evaluation of cardiac functions of infants of diabetic mothers using tissue Doppler echocardiography.

AIM Transient cardiac hypertrophy occurs in infants of diabetic mothers. The effect of this state on cardiac functions was investigated with a case-control study using tissue Doppler technique. MATERIAL AND METHODS In this study, right and left ventricle systolic and diastolic functions of 45 term babies of diabetic mothers and 50 healthy term newborns were examined using tissue Doppler echocardiography. RESULTS The septum was found to be thick in 16 (36%) of the babies of diabetic mothers. Both the left and right ventricle myocardial velocities were found to be lower in the babies of diabetic mothers compared to the control group. In our study, the Em/Am ratio was found to be below one only in the babies of diabetic mothers in the left ventricle in contrast to the control group. In addition, the Em/Am ratio in the septum and right ventricle was found to be below one both in the babies of diabetic mothers (group 1, 2) and control group. The calculated Tei index was found to be higher in the babies of diabetic mothers who had a thicker interventricular septum compared to the control group. CONCLUSION Interventricular septal thickening in babies of diabetic mothers disrupt the diastolic function of both ventricles. This can be demonstrated by tissue Doppler echocardiography. These results show that diastolic function is disrupted in both ventricles in babies of diabetic mothers and only in the right ventricle in healthy babies. It was thought that this could be explained by right ventricular dysfunction arising from physiological pulmonary hypertension in the neonatal period. Subclinical right and left ventricular diastolic dysfunctions which we found by tissue Doppler indicate that babies of diabetic mothers especially with a thick septum should be closely monitored.