Assessment of right ventricular diastolic function

Assessment of right ventricular diastolic function Assessment of right ventricular diastolic function is often done by echocardiography, though not as commonly as for the left ventricle. An RV focussed apical four chamber view is used for the assessment of right ventricle. In RV focussed view, transducer is adjusted from the standard apical four chamber view to have right ventricle in the centre of the image than the usual image centered on the left ventricle. The left ventricular outflow tract should not come into the view and left ventricular apex should remain at the top of the image sector. In this adjusted view, the entire right ventricular free wall should be visible [1]. Right ventricular diastolic dysfunction may be associated with various congenital heart diseases, cardiomyopathies, left sided valvular heart disease and systemic conditions like diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis and conditions causing vasculitis. Assessment of right atrium, right ventricle and inferior vena cava by two-dimensional echocardiography gives indirect evidence on right ventricular diastolic function. This is so because significant elevation of right sided filling pressures would alter the right heart dimensions, size of the inferior vena cava and its inspiratory collapse. As in the case of mitral valve, assessment of tricuspid inflow velocities is a simple way to assess right ventricular diastolic function. E/A ratio and deceleration time of the E wave can be recorded using pulsed Dop...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Echocardiography Source Type: blogs