Alagille syndrome is a genetic disease with multi-organ involvement and can cause various congenital cardiac lesions. This syndrome is caused by mutations in the JAG1 and NOTCH gene pathways. As a result of these lesions, pulmonary hypertension can be seen in patients. While pulmonary hypertension is observed especially due to pulmonary valve stenosis; It may be due to various causes such as tetralogy of Fallot. Currently, pulmonary hypertension has not been reported in Alagille patients without cardiac anomaly in the literature.

Introduction: Mitral annulus (MA) assessment is of utmost importance for the management of patients with mitral valve (MV) abnormalities and Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3D-TOE) has been the only reliable echocardiographic method for the evaluation of the mitral annulus by now. However, newer transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) probes have enabled to provide accurate measurements when TOE is contraindicated. The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of 3D-TTE analysis of MA and the level of agreement with 3D-TOE measurements. Methods: A total of 121 consecutive patients were assessed with 3D-TTE and TOE. All MA parameters were retrospectively analyzed with the dedicated 4D-autoMVQ application. Bland-Altman analysis and intraclass correlation coefficient were used for the comparison and agreement between the two methods. Half of our patients had normal mitral valves and served as control group, while the other half had various mitral valve pathologies. Results: AutoMVQ analysis was not feasible in 11 out of 121 TTE examinations (91% feasibility) and in 4 out of 121 TOE examinations (96% feasibility). MA area and perimeter were slightly larger in TTE than those measured by TOE (12.7±3.6 vs 12.4±3.2cm2 for area and 12.7±1.7 vs 12.5±1.6cm for perimeter), however still showing strong correlation (r=0.942 and r=0.922 respectively). The majority of MV measurements were similar between the two methods with strong correlation (r>0.80). Conclusions: Assessment of the MV with 3D TTE with dedicated MVQ software is feasible and accurate, showing strong correlation and agreement with TOE measurements.

Background: Coronary artery disease is a major public health problem. Early diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease is crucial. There is a need for a practical, reliable and cost-effective non-invasive imaging tool. We aimed to evaluate the rest ischemia with speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) compare to the two methods in patients who were scheduled coronary angiography according to the stress tests. Methods: We included fifty patients with stable angina pectoris who were scheduled for conventional coronary angiography after the stress tests in our study. Speckle tracking echocardiography was performed just before coronary angiography. The association of 2 parameters with coronary artery disease was investigated and compared. Results: Among 50 patients recruited for the study, 38 of them had severe CAD (>50%), whereas 12 patients had non-significant CAD. Post systolic shortening (PSS) was significantly related with CAD (p<0.0001). The relationship of PLS with the area at risk was found to be statistically insignificant but global longitudinal strain (GLS) was significantly lower in patients with severe CAD (p=0.011) Conclusion: PSS may detect coronary ischemia in patients with stable coronary artery disease and it is more sensitive and specific in patients with stable CAD. PSS is a very useful, practical and easy applicable non invasive tool for the detection of severe coronary artery disease at rest.

Background: The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been reported as pandemy and the number of patients continues to rise. Based on recent data, cardiac injury is a prominent feature of the disease, leading to increased morbidity and mortality.In the present study we aimed to evaluate myocardial dysfunction using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Methods and Results: We recruited 30 patients (56.7 % male, 55.80±14.949 years) who were hospitalized with the diagnosis COVID-19 infection. We analyzed left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) conventional and TDI parameters at the time of hospitalization and during the course of the disease. Patients without any cardiac disease and with preserved LV ejection fraction (EF) were included.TTE examination was performed and all the variables were recorded and analyzed retrospectively. We observed that both LV and RV conventional echocardiographic parameters were similar when the day of admission to the hospital was compared to the 5th day of the disease. Regarding TDI analysis, we demonstrated significant impairment in LV septal and lateral deformation (p˂.001) .In the correlation analysis no marked correlation was observed between impairment in LV deformation and inflammation biomarkers. Conclusion: Cardiac involvement is an important feature of the COVID-19 infection but the exact mechanism is still undefined. Echocardiography is an essential technique to describe myocardial injury and provide new concepts for the possible definitions of cardiac dysfunction.