title: Right ventricular infarction: recognition and assessment of its hemodynamic significance by two-dimensional echocardiography.
abstract: To evaluate the ability of two-dimensional echocardiographic indexes to determine the hemodynamic significance of the right ventricular infarction, 24 patients with electrocardiographic evidence of right ventricular infarction were studied. Hemodynamic significance was defined as a jugular venous pressure greater than 17 cm H2O or a right atrial pressure greater than 13 mm Hg. Patients with hemodynamically significant right ventricular infarctions (group I, n = 9) had a 56% incidence of hypotension (blood pressure less than 90 mm Hg) with a mean systolic blood pressure of 93 +/- 23 mm Hg, whereas patients with nonhemodynamically significant right ventricular infarctions (group II, n = 15) had no hypotension and a mean systolic blood pressure of 121 +/- 18 mm Hg (p less than 0.01). The ratio of right atrial to pulmonary capillary wedge pressure was 1.1 +/- 0.6 in group I and 0.6 +/- 0.2 in group II (p less than 0.05). Echocardiography demonstrated right ventricular free wall motion abnormalities in seven patients in group I and in 10 patients in group II. The descent of the right ventricular base was 0.7 +/- 0.2 cm in group I, 1.3 +/- 0.4 cm in group II, and 2.0 +/- 0.2 cm in a group of 20 normal control patients (p less than 0.001 for all comparisons). The respiratory caval index (percentage of collapse of the inferior vena cava with inspiration) was 22% +/- 11% in group I, 45% +/- 15% in group II, and 64% +/- 17% in the control subjects (p less than 0.05 for all comparisons).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Goldberger
authors.forename: R B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Himelman
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Wolfe
authors.forename: N B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Schiller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002302:Cardiac Output / Q000502:physiology; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011669:Pulmonary Wedge Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014682:Vena Cava, Inferior / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014690:Venous Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D016278:Ventricular Function, Right / Q000502:physiology*