Evaluation of the valvular and biventricular functions in Parkinson patients using ergotamine-derived dopamine agonist: an observational study

Objective: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the impact of cabergoline use in patients with Parkinson’s disease on valvular and biventricular functions. Methods: In this observational cohort study, patients with Parkinson disease were divided into 2 groups as 34 patients (41.2% female, age; 57.4±15.3 years) using cabergoline (Group 1) and 42 patients (61.9% female, age; 53.7±7.1 years) not using cabergoline (Group 2). In addition to conventional echocardiography and diastolic functions, tissue Doppler imaging was used to evaluate both global and regional systolic - diastolic functions. Correlations were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficient for normally distributed variables. Results: In group 1 patients cabergoline was used for 7.7±5.1 years and mean and cumulative cabergoline dose were 3.3±1.1 mg and 9.8±7.0 g respectively. Left ventricular systolic functions and tissue Doppler measurements of septal and lateral mitral annulus and right ventricular systolic and diastolic velocities were similar between groups. Mitral valve tenting area was significantly higher in patients using cabergoline (p=0.007). The association between cumulative cabergoline dose and diastolic functions was also evaluated which revealed that among diastolic function parameters, Epeak (r=0.253, p=0.042), E/A (r=0.256, p=0.026) and DT (r=-0.382, p=0.001) were correlated with cumulative cabergoline dose. There was a positive correlation between cumulative cabergoline dose and duration of cabergoline therapy with composite regurgitation score (r=0.435, p 0.001; r=0.485, p 0.001, respectively). Conclusion: Our findings indicated that despite the well known effects of cabergoline on valvular functions, we did not observe any alteration in systolic functions, but diastolic functions which was associated with cumulative cabergoline dose in patients with Parkinson’s disease.