@article{QIMS154746,
author = {Attila Nemes and Renáta Halcsik and Árpád Kormányos and Nándor Gyenes and Asghar Keifari and Bence András Lázár and Csaba Lengyel and János Kálmán},
title = {Left ventricular deformation in chronic schizophrenia—a detailed analysis from the three-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiographic MAGYAR-Path Study},
journal = {Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery},
volume = {16},
number = {7},
year = {2026},
keywords = {},
abstract = {Background: Schizophrenia (SCH) is a severe mental disorder and one of the top 20 causes of disability, associated with a reduction in life expectancy of more than 15 years. Excess mortality rates in SCH are mainly due to complex vascular and cardiometabolic causes. However, the exact nature of the detailed structural and functional alterations in myocardial mechanics, particularly regarding left ventricular (LV) function, remains insufficiently characterized in the chronic stage of SCH (CS-SCH). The novel three-dimensional (3D) speckle-tracking echocardiography (3DSTE) enables detailed volumetric and strain analysis of the LV from a single acquired 3D echocardiographic dataset. The present study aimed to evaluate LV deformation using 3DSTE in patients with CS-SCH and to compare their data to age-, gender- and body mass index (BMI)-matched healthy controls.Methods: In a cross-sectional case-control design, after the initial screening of 74 CS-SCH outpatients, due to non-compliance and suboptimal image quality, 23 patients (mean age: 45.9±9.3 years, 13 males, BMI: 30.4±5.1 kg/m2) were included in the final analysis and compared to 59 healthy individuals matched for age, gender and BMI (mean age: 46.7±9.4 years, 33 men, BMI: 30.1±4.5 kg/m2). All patients and controls underwent routine two-dimensional Doppler echocardiography extended with detailed 3DSTE analysis.Results: Increased LV volumes were associated with reduced LV ejection fraction (EF) in patients with CS-SCH as compared to controls. All global and mean segmental LV strains were reduced in CS-SCH patients. From regional LV strains, only midventricular LV strains were reduced, whereas basal and apical LV strains did not differ between the two groups.Conclusions: Detailed 3DSTE-derived LV deformation analysis revealed significant abnormalities, including reduced LV-EF and reduced midventricular LV strains, indicating subclinical cardiac damage in the chronic stage of CS-SCH. These findings confirm the importance of cardiovascular assessment and management in this severe mental condition.},
issn = {2223-4306}, url = {https://qims.amegroups.org/article/view/154746}
}