title: MRI complements standard assessment of right ventricular function after lung transplantation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Changes in right ventricular mass and ejection fraction after single-lung transplantation for pulmonary hypertension are poorly understood.
  
  
  METHODS
  To complement functional data provided by echocardiography, radionuclide ventriculography, and right heart catheterization, magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess right ventricular function in 5 single-lung transplant recipients with preoperative pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular dysfunction (right ventricular ejection fraction, 0.21 +/- 0.09). The right and left ventricular mass, ejection fraction, and mass ratio (left ventricular mass/right ventricular mass) were calculated from the magnetic resonance images.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean pulmonary artery pressure fell from 72 +/- 18 to 21 +/- 8 mm Hg after transplantation. At 3 months after transplantation both the left ventricular and right ventricular ejection fractions approached normal values, as shown by both radionuclide ventriculography and magnetic resonance imaging, but the right ventricular mass remained abnormally high with slightly low mass ratios. By 1 year both the left ventricular and right ventricular masses had regressed to normal with near-normal mass ratios.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Right ventricular performance returns to nearly normal early after transplantation, but the right ventricular mass regresses over a more prolonged time. Cine magnetic resonance imaging provides a noninvasive means of assessing changes in right ventricular function and mass after lung transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Frist
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lorenz
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Loyd
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Pearlstein
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Key
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Merrill
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology*; D016040:Lung Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013318:Stroke Volume; D016278:Ventricular Function, Right