title: Doppler echocardiographic evaluation of pulmonary artery pressure in pneumonia of infants and children.
abstract: Previously, there was insufficient evidence to confirm that pneumonia in infants and children might lead to the development of pulmonary hypertension. Recently, it has been shown that acceleration time corrected for heart rate (ATc) and the ratios of right ventricular preejection period to right ventricular ejection time (RPEP/RVET) and of right ventricular preejection period to acceleration time (RPEP/AT) derived from Doppler echocardiography correlated well with pulmonary artery pressure (PAP). To approach PAP in patients with infantile pneumonia, we measured RPEP/RVET, RPEP/AT, and ATc in 105 infants and children with pneumonia and in 17 controls, using a commercially available 2-dimensional echocardiograph (Toshiba SSH-40A) with SDS-21B Doppler unit. An increase of varying degrees in both ratios and ATc was noted during acute illness and significant differences in ratios RPEP/RVET and RPEP/AT were found among patients with mild, moderate, and severe disease. This suggested that PAP increased to different extents in the acute stage of illness and that the degree of increase was related to the severity of disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, First Hospital of Beijing Medical University, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: S Z
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Y A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016278:Ventricular Function, Right / Q000502:physiology*