Quantitative echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular function in critically ill obstetric patients: a comparative study.
OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to compare different echocardiographic methods to quantitate maternal ventricular function.


METHODS
Eleven critically ill obstetric patients requiring invasive monitoring and M-mode and two-dimensional Doppler echocardiographic studies were retrospectively studied. Ventricular volumes and ejection fraction derived from multiple methods were computed and compared with analysis of variance and Newman-Keuls tests.


RESULTS
Two M-mode studies could not be analyzed. M-mode and two-dimensional estimates of stroke volume were similar to the previously validated Doppler stroke volume values of these 11 patients. End-diastolic volume estimates were similar. There was no difference in ejection fraction for the five different two-dimensional Doppler methods used (66%, 66%, 67%, 63%, and 63%).


CONCLUSIONS
Left ventricular function is reliably calculated in pregnant women by a number of different echocardiographic techniques. The ability to combine echocardiographic techniques is helpful when any single method does not provide all of the information required.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016638:Critical Illness; D004452:Echocardiography; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008423:Maternal Age; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013318:Stroke Volume; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left