Prognostic significance of an early echocardiographic evaluation of right ventricular dimension and function in acute heart failure.

The prognostic impact of right ventricular (RV) dysfunction and of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients affected by chronic heart failure (CHF) has been well described by several invasive and non-invasive diagnostic tools [1 –7]. More recently, it has been demonstrated that taking into account the coupling between the afterload and the function of the right ventricle may prove more useful than considering this information separately. The tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE)/ systolic pulmonary artery pre ssure (PASP), a surrogate marker of RV-vascular coupling have already proven to be effective indicators for making an accurate prognosis in chronic patients with either reduced (HFrEF) or preserved (HFpEF) left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) [8–10].
Source: Journal of Cardiac Failure - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: research