Echocardiography evaluation for asymptomatic patients with severe obesity

Objective: To study the systolic and diastolic function of asymptomatic patients with severe obesity using a Doppler echocardiography. Methods: Thirty candidates for bariatric surgery, with an average BMI of 49.2 +/- 8.8 Kg/m(2) and no previous history of heart disease were evaluated through transthoracic echocardiography. Results: Enlarged left chambers were observed in 42.9% of the sample, diastolic dysfunction in 54.6% and left ventricular hypertrophy in 82.1% of which 50% of the cases presented the geometric pattern of eccentric hypertrophy. Indexation of left ventricular mass to height resulted in a significantly higher number of diagnoses for hypertrophy than indexation to body surface area (p = 0.0053), demonstrating that this index is more appropriate to determine ventricular hypertrophy in obese people. Correlations between left ventricular hypertrophy with obesity duration and pressure levels were positive as well as correlations between body mass index and diastolic dysfunction indicators. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that echocardiograms performed on asymptomatic severely obese patients can detect alterations in the cardiac structure that are common in cases of obesity cardiomyopathy and can be associated with the development of heart failure, arrhythmias and sudden death.