Assessment of atrial conduction time in patients with Behcet's disease.

OBJECTIVE: Behcet's disease is characterized by increased inflammatory activity, and there there might be an increased risk of atrial arrhythmia in patients with this disease. Our study is aimed to evaluate a novel method of measuring atrial electromechanical features expressed as interatrial and intraatrial electromechanical delay by tissue Doppler echocardiography in patients with Behcet's disease. METHODS: We evaluated 57 patients (mean age: 36.3+/-12.1 years) with Behcet's disease and 34 sex and age matched healthy volunteers (mean age: 38.4+/-8.6 years) as control group. P-wave dispersion (PWD) was calculated from the 12-lead surface ECG, interatrial and intraatrial electromechanical delay were measured by tissue Doppler imaging and conventional echocardiography. RESULTS: Interatrial electromechanical delay and intraatrial electromechanical delay were prolonged in patients with active Behcet's disease compared with the patients with inactive disease and the controls (p<0.0001, p<0.0001, p=0.013 and p=0.001, respectively). Erythrocyte sedimentation rate and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein values of of patients with active Behcet's were significantly higher than those with inactive Behcet's disease and the controls (p<0.0001 and p<0.0001, respectively). High-sensitivity C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were correlated with interatrial electromechanical delay in patients with Behcet's disease (r=0.44, p=0.001 and r=0.64, p<0.0001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The prolongation of atrial electromechanical conduction might be related with changes in structure and electrophysiological properties of the atrial myocardium or the conduction system in patients with active Behcet's disease.