Cardiovascular (CV) diseases are still the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in both patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) treatment and individuals with renal transplantation (Rtx). Measurement of epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) thickness is an easily applied, cheap, and useful recent method predicting increased CV risk. We aimed to compare EAT changes in HD and Rtx patients and the association between EAT and inflammatory and CV volume markers in both groups. A total of 124 patients: 45 Rtx, 43 HD patients and 36 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. Laboratory parameters and inflammatory markers (interleukin-6 [IL-6] and high sensitive C-reactive protein [Hs-CRP]) were evaluated from venous blood samples after an overnight fast. EAT thickness was measured with transthoracic echocardiography. The levels of Hs-CRP, IL-6, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, left atrial (LA) diameter, left atrial index (LAI), left ventricular mass (LVM) and LVM index (LVMI) were significantly higher in the HD patients than in the other groups. EAT was positively correlated with age, body mass index (BMI), time on dialysis, serum creatinine, total cholesterol, Low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and LVM in Rtx group and positively correlated with age, BMI, duration of dialysis, Hs-CRP, IL-6, LAI and LVMI and inversely correlated with inferior vena cava collapse index (IVC-CI) in HD group. EAT thickness of RTx patients (whose previous HD duration was similar to those in HD group) are similar to the healthy population and significantly thinner than patients on HD.

We concluded that the elastic properties of the aorta is increased in patients with classic MVP. Further large scale studies should be performed to understand of morphological and physiological properties of the aorta in patients with MVP.

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In rheumatic mitral stenosis (RMS), mitral valve area is reduced, creating an obstruction to the blood flow between the left atrium (LA) and the left ventricle (LV), causing an elevation in LA pressure. Elevation in LA pressure has several important effects including enlargement of the LA, atrial arrhythmias, and an increase in pulmonary venous pressure. RMS increases the risk of both atrial fibrillation (AF) and thromboembolism, causing an important health care problem in developing countries. The prevalence of AF in patients with MS is between 17 to 80% and related to both the severity of valve obstruction and patient age .1 The incidence of systemic embolism is greater in rheumatic mitral valve disease than in any other common form of valvular heart disease.Patients with AF and mitral stenosis have high incidence of thrombus formation in the LA .2,3 AF is the most commonly encountered cardiac arrhythmia in this subset of patients with an increased risk of thromboembolism.4 Although mitral stenosis is considered as a strong risk factor for AF, the parameters in mitral stenosis that predict the risk of Abstract Introduction:Rheumatic mitral stenosis (RMS) increases the risk of both atrial fibrillation (AF) and thromboembolism. Methods: Patients with mitral stenosis and normal sinus rhythm were enrolled in the study prospectively.The present study was designed to study whether echocardiographic evaluation in patients with mitral stenosis and normal sinus rhythm could predict the occurrence of symptomatic AF . Results: Sixty-two patients (51 females) with mitral stenosis and normal sinus rhythm were included in the study. Seven patients (11.3%) developed symptomatic AF and the remaining 55 were free of AF during a followed-up of 22±5 months. The following echocardiographic parameters were significantly increased and predicted the development of AF; left atrial (LA) mediolateral diameter (5.5 ± 0.5 cm vs 4.7 ± 0.7 cm), right atrial mediolateral diameter (4,7 ± 1.0 cm vs 3.6 ± 1.3 cm), LA area in the apical two chamber view ( 31 ± 3.2 cm2 vs 25 ± 5.8 cm2), right atrial volume (52 ± 22 cm3 vs 34 ± 19 cm3), and interatrial conduction time (IACT) (142 ± 22 msec vs 115 ± 16 msec). Conclusions: OThis study revealed that echocardiography can be used to predict symptomatic AF in patients with RMS and sinus rhythm.

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