Standard 2-dimensional and Doppler Echocardiography (iE-33 Philips, The Netherlands) is performed by a single cardiologist blinded to the clinical status of the study participants. Briefly, left ventricular function is assessed by the parasternal long axis M-mode and modified biplane Simpson method. Diastolic function is determined taking into account all the following parameters: mitral inflow, pulmonary vein inflow signal and mitral annular tissue Doppler (tD) velocities from end expiratory cycles according to the ASE recommendations.