Preserved stroke volume late after tetralogy repair, despite severe right ventricular dilatation

The Authors’ reply We would like to thank Drs Masutani and Senzaki for their comments1 and Heart for the opportunity to respond. As stated in our study2, we did not find a significant difference in left ventricular (LV) volumes or function in patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) either above or below an indexed right ventricular (RV) end-diastolic volume of 150 mL/m2. We observed that as the RV became more dilated, the progressive increase in RV stroke volume was associated with lower RV ejection fraction in the more dilated group but was largely explained by increased indexed RV end-systolic volume. These changes did not translate into any significant alteration to LV parameters or indeed cardiopulmonary exercise capacity. Further, in response to the request for analysis with an indexed LV stroke volume (LVSVi) cut-point, it was difficult to determine a meaningful position to divide the group by this measure....
Source: Heart - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: PostScript Source Type: research