title: Assessment of the pulmonary vascular bed by echocardiographic right ventricular systolic time intervals.
abstract: Echocardiography was used to measure right ventricular systolic time intervals (RVSTI) in 85 normal children (group I) and in 229 patients undergoing cardiac catheterization (group II). Corrected right ventricular pre-ejection period (RPEPC) and right ventricular ejection time (RVETc) (based on regression analysis of group I) and RPEP/RVET were each correlated with pulmonary artery (PA) diastolic and mean pressures and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). The best correlation (0.83) was between a second degree polynomial of the RPEP/RVET and PA diastolic pressure. The RPEP/RVET allowed prediction of PA diastolic pressure within 10 mm Hg in 85% of the patients. The utility of RPEP/RVET was confirmed in sequential data of 22 patients, in whom alteration in RPEP/RVET accurately reflected the changing PA diastolic pressure. The RPEP/RVET could not be used to assess PA pressure in six patients with congestive cardiomyopathy nor in 18 patients with complete right bundle branch block (CRBBB).
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002037:Bundle-Branch Block / Q000503:physiopathology; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D002312:Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004452:Echocardiography; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011651:Pulmonary Artery; D013997:Time Factors