Utility of right ventricular tissue Doppler imaging: correlation with right heart catheterization.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study was to correlate tissue Doppler imaging of the right ventricle (RV) with pulmonary hemodynamics in patients referred for right heart catheterization.

METHODS

Seventy subjects (mean age 54 +/- 13; 35 males) prospectively underwent tissue Doppler imaging of the RV and right heart catheterization within 1 day of each other. Peak systolic velocity and strain were measured at the RV free wall and correlated with pulmonary hemodynamics.

RESULTS

RV myocardial velocity demonstrated no correlation with any hemodynamic variable. While RV strain demonstrated significant correlation with cardiac index (r =-0.61; P < 0.001), correlations with transpulmonary gradient (r = 0.26; P < 0.05) and pulmonary vascular resistance (r = 0.30; P < 0.05) were weaker. Subgroup analysis revealed that in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction (n = 31), RV strain showed no correlation with any hemodynamic variable. In patients with normal left ventricular systolic function (n = 39), correlations were significant between RV strain and mean pulmonary artery pressure (r = 0.59; P < 0.001), pulmonary vascular resistance (r = 0.60; P < 0.001), and cardiac index (r =-0.67; P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

RV myocardial strain correlates significantly with pulmonary hemodynamics in patients with pulmonary hypertension and normal left ventricular function. However, there is no correlation with RV performance in patients with left ventricular dysfunction.