Work

Cardiac magnetic resonance feature tracking evaluates left atrial strain in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and mitral regurgitation

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Purpose To explore left atrial (LA) function in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and mitral regurgitation assessed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging feature tracking (MRI-FT). Method In this study, 64 SLE patients (35.0 ± 12.3 years, 49 females) and 50 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (32.1 ± 11.2 years, 32 females) were analyzed. Patients with SLE were further classified into two subgroups according to mitral regurgitation defined by echocardiography: mitral regurgitation subgroup ( n = 32) and non-mitral regurgitation subgroup ( n = 32). All subjects underwent cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) examination and SLE patients underwent extra laboratory testing. LA volume and strain parameters were compared among the three groups, and a correlation analysis was further performed between CMR parameters and clinical variables. Results Patients in both mitral regurgitation and non-mitral regurgitation subgroups showed higher LAVmin (29.15 ± 7.5, 26.22 ± 8.23 vs 21.68 ± 7.67, p = .003, .026) and LAVimin (17.44,14.9 vs 12.62, p = .002,.046) than healthy control subjects. Abnormal LA reservoir, conduit and bump strain were also observed in SLE patients (all p < .05), with more severe reservoir ( p = .006, .031) and bump strain ( p = .01, .033) abnormality found in mitral regurgitation subgroup. In the SLE group, LA reservoir, bump and conduit strain were significantly positively correlated with LVEF (B = 0.467, p < .001 vs B = 0.019, p = .01 vs B = 0.168, p = .001 vs B = 0.036, p < .001 vs B = 0.020, p = .024). Conduit strain (εe, SRe) was positively correlated with LAEF (B = 0.229, p = .032 vs B = 0.027, p = .008). Conclusion MRI-FT based LA parameters may be considered a helpful tool to evaluate LA function in SLE patients, and LA strain may indicate severity of the cardiac dysfunction in SLE patients.

Source: Lupus

DOI: 10.1177/09612033251344983