ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC FINDINGS IN
CHRONIC RENAL FAILURE PATIENTS ON
DIFFERENT TYPES OF THERAPY
By
Abdel Shafi M. Tabl, MD; Yehia Saddik, MD; Nail A. Khattab, MD; Atef Ibrahim, MD; Alaa Ibrahim, MD and Omar Awad*, MD.
Department of Internal Medicine, Benha Faculty of Medicine and * Department of Cardiology, Ain Shams Faculty of Medicine
ABSTRACT
This work was carried out on 40 patients with chronic renal failure in order to study echocardiographic changes in such patients. They were classified into 4 groups (each contained 10 patients) according to the modes of therapy: conservative therapy, hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and renal transplantation. It was found that there is significant dilatation of the cardiac chambers in all groups. However, such dilatation was more marked in peritoneal dialysis and transplantation groups, the least dilatation was observed in hemodialysis group. The highest incidence of asymmetric septal hypertrophy was noticed in peritoneal dialysis group. Pericarditis and pericardial effusion were more evident in dialysis groups. Aortic and mitral regurgitation were more frequent in peritoneal dialysis group as this group possesses the highest dimensions of cardiac chambers and highest volume overload. Therefore, early detection of these changes by echocardiography might enable us to prevent further deterioration and to decrease the risk of cardiovascular complications and to select the suitable mode of therapy for uremic patients.