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Aim: Cardiac involvement associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the common inflammatory diseases of silent nature. In this study, presence of cardiac involvement was investigated by echocardiographic evaluation in RA patients.Material and Methods: Fourty-eight patients with RA and 22 age-matched healthy controls were included in this study. All individuals were evaluated in terms of clinical and laboratory parameters. Conventional and tissue Doppler echocardiography was performed.Results: According to the conventional and tissue Doppler evaluation, RVD (Right ventricular diastolic diameter), RAD (Right atrium diastolic diameter), Mit-E (Early diastolic wave of mitral valve), Tleft-Em (Left ventricular lateral wall tissue Doppler late diastolic wave), Tright-Em (Right ventricular free wall tissue Doppler early diastolic wave), Mit-E/Mit-A, Tleft-Em/Tleft-Am (Left ventricular lateral wall tissue Doppler late diastolic wave/ Left ventricular lateral wall tissue Doppler late diastolic wave), Tright-Em/Tright-Am were found to be significantly lower in the RA group. Mit-A (Late diastolic motion of mitral valve), DT (Mitral deceleration time), Tleft-Am, Tright-Am (Right ventricular free wall tissue Doppler late diastolic wave), IVRT (isovolumic relaxation time), LV-MPI (Left ventricular myocardial performance index), RV-MPI (Right ventricular myocardial perfusion index) were found to be significantly higher in the RA group.Conclusion: Conventional and tissue Doppler measurements demonstrated the presence of diastolic dysfunction in RA patients. Conventional and tissue Doppler electrocardiographic evaluation offers necessary, non-invasive, and practical methods in the planning of the required treatment regimen for cardiac involvement within the context of the follow-up of the RA patients.

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