Objective To investigate the changes of left atrial（LA）structure and function by two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging（2 D-STI）in patients with diabetes

and to explore its clinical application value.Methods Twenty-five pure diabetes patients（diabete group）

30 patients with diabetic cardiomyopathy（DCM group）and 20 cases of healthy subjects（control group）were included.All subjects were examined by 2 D-STI to obtain the systolic strain and stain rate（SS

s-SR）

early diastolic stain rate（e-SR）and late diastolic strain rate（a-SR）. Left atrial maximum volume was measured by Simpson method

the results were compared and analyzed.Results Compared with the control group

SS

s-SR and e-SR were decreased in the diabete and DCM group

the decreasing of the DCM group were more obvious than those of diabete group（all P<0.001）.a-SR of the diabete group was higher than that of other two groups

and a-SR of the DCM group was higher than that of control group

the difference were statistically significant（both P<0.05）.Conclusion 2 D-STI can effectively assess the LA function in patients with diabetes

which has important clinical application value.