Exclusion criteria
- Patients with acute AR or decompensated valvular failure
- Other concomitant valvular diseases of more than mild in severity,
- Known ischemic heart disease,
- Chronic pulmonary obstructive disease
- Previous cardiac or valve surgery,
- Reduced LVEF (≤50%), and
- Inadequate echocardiographic data for 2D-STE analysis were excluded.