Evaluation of Left Ventricular Function After Treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers Using Longitudinal Strain Echocardiography

Early detection of heart failure as a macrovascular complication of DM offers the best chance of cure in these patients. Nowadays, the most common method for detecting heart failure is measuring left ventricle ejection fraction (LV-EF), by echocardiography. Despite the easy application of LV-EF, it remains normal in early stages of cardiac disease and it's considered as heart failure with preserved LVEF (HFpEF). We hope that, Strain monitoring as a new method enables us to detect the early minimal changes in myocardium. The aim of study evaluate the effect of treatment of diabetic foot ulcers in improving heart function by strain echocardiography than conventional transthoracic echocardiography in Assiut university hospital.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic, metabolic disease with hyperglycemia that occurs as a result of deficiency or resistance of insulin hormone secreted from the pancreas. Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU)is a frequent macrovascular complication has a high incidence and mortality rate. According to research statistics, the mortality rate of patients with foot ulcers after 5 years is 2.5 times higher than that of patients without such ulcers. Heart failure develops in diabetic patients over twice higher than non-diabetics both directly, by impairing cardiac function, and indirectly, through associated diseases such as hypertension, coronary disease, renal dysfunction, obesity, and other metabolic disorders. Based on a recent study, DFU treatment improves cardiac function assessed by strain measurements . At present, few data is available about the ability of strain echocardiography in prediction of systolic dysfunction in DFU, and the possible effect of the treatment of these patients on their cardiac function. So, we decided to evaluate the effect of treatment of diabetic foot ulcers in improving heart function by this new method-strain echocardiography.