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Considering the nature of Behçet's disease(BD),which involves multisystem inflammation, we soughtto compare the echocardiographic characteristics of BD >5years’duration with those of healthy subjects.

We compared 73 patientswith BDwith 74 age-and sex-matched healthy controls. The subjects underwent transthoracic echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging for the measurement ofcardiac function and evaluation ofthe heart valves. The echocardiographic parameters were then compared between the study groups.

Among the echocardiographicparameters, only left ventricular end-diastolic diameter was significantly lower inthepatientswith BD(47.0±5.2)than that in thecontrol group (50.8±4.7; P<0.001). There was also no relationshipbetween the echocardiographic parameters andtheactive stage of the disease.

Diastolic dysfunction was significantly more common in thepatients withBD>5 years’duration than in thecontrol group. The other echocardiographic indices were similar in both groups. (Iranian Heart Journal 2015; 16(4): 6-11)