Vendor-Neutral Right Ventricular Strain Measurement.

OBJECTIVE

To test the feasibility and reliability of using a vendor-neutral platform to evaluate right ventricular (RV) strain. Reliability was determined by comparing intra- and inter-observer variability between RV strain assessments. The secondary objective was to assess strain's correlation with conventional RV functional parameters to evaluate its feasibility as a RV systolic functional assessment tool.

DESIGN

This is a retrospective study.

SETTING

Tertiary hospital.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 15 patients who underwent elective coronary artery bypass graft surgery were selected for inclusion.

INTERVENTIONS

None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Images obtained during routine, intraoperative, two-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (2D TEE) were assessed for longitudinal strain (LS) and conventional parameters, including fractional area change (FAC), tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), Doppler tissue imaging (DTI)-derived tricuspid lateral annular systolic velocity wave (S'), and RV dimensions using vendor-neutral software. There was good to excellent intra- and inter-observer reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] from 0.75 to 1.00) with the exception of basal free wall longitudinal strain (FWLS) (for intra- and inter-observer reproducibility, ICC = 0.670 and 0.749, respectively). FWLS and global longitudinal strain (GLS) showed moderate to strong positive correlation with FAC, TAPSE, and S' (correlation coefficients from 0.667 to 0.721).

CONCLUSION

It is feasible to assess RV strain across multiple platforms in a reproducible and reliable fashion. Furthermore, RV strain demonstrated good correlation with conventional RV functional parameters, suggesting its feasibility as a sensitive RV function assessment tool.