title: [Diagnosis of right heart stress with one- and two-dimensional echocardiography--sensible normal values, problems and limitations].
abstract: Unidimensional and two-dimensional echocardiography is considered to be an established method of examination in cardiology alongside Doppler sonography and the transoesophageal method. It is planned to propagate the use of unidimensional and two-dimensional echocardiography in internistic pneumological diagnostics. To achieve this it is imperative to know the standard values of the right heart and to know how they are to be assessed. The standard values stated so far have proved to be too low in practice, resulting in many false positive findings, and are often also too complicated to obtain. 53 healthy probands were selected at random and six different measurements of the right heart and the efferent major vessels were performed. Only the diameter of the right ventricle and right atrium, as well as the wall thickness of the right ventricular wall were found to be suitable parameters for confirming right ventricular strain. The measured values were tested for reproducibility in patients suffering from diseases of the lung and of the airways. Compared with pressure values of pulmonary circulation obtained by invasive methods, maximum values obtained in patients with pulmonary hypertension can serve to recommend unidimensional and two-dimensional echocardiography as screening method in cases of suspected cor pulmonale.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Klopf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016280:Atrial Function, Right / Q000502:physiology*; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011660:Pulmonary Heart Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012016:Reference Values; D016278:Ventricular Function, Right / Q000502:physiology*