Suitability of Doppler echocardiography for the assessment of right heart hemodynamics after De Vega tricuspid annuloplasty.
Cardiac Doppler Echocardiography is a suitable method for to evaluating right heart hemodynamics. However, the surgical correction of tricuspid valve annuloplasty changes valve geometry and might possibly lead to a technical obstacle to this estimation. The accuracy of Doppler echocardiography in the assessment of tricuspid regurgitation and systolic pulmonary pressure in patients who had undergone De Vega annuloplasty was evaluated in this study. Ten patients (9 females and 1 male), mean age 55.7 +/- 7.8 years, who had a previous De Vega annuloplasty for the treatment of tricuspid regurgitation due to a severe mitral stenosis, underwent a Doppler echocardiography study and, within two hours, right heart catheterization for a direct comparison of parameters calculated by different methods. Right ventricular-atrial maximal pressure gradient was found to be 32.6 +/- 11.07 mmHg by Doppler and 31.4 +/- 11.07 mmHg by catheterization. Pulmonary systolic pressure was 42.6 +/- 9.1 mmHg at Doppler and 39.1 +/- 11.3 mmHg at catheterization, with a highly significant correlation between the 2 techniques (r = 0.98%, p < 0.01). With semiquantitative Doppler evaluation 10 patients showed tricuspid insufficiency, which was mild in 8 and medium in 2. At catheterization all patients were found to have mild tricuspid insufficiency. Cardiac Doppler seems a reliable method in the evaluation of tricuspid regurgitation and of pulmonary systolic pressure even in patients who underwent De Vega annuloplasty.
Di Bello
V
V
CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Cardiosurgical Department, University of Pisa, Italy.
Maffei
S
S
Piacenti
M
M
Magagnini
E
E
Giusti
C
C
Verunelli
F
F
Salvatore
L
L
Biagini
A
A
D001794:Blood Pressure; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008946:Mitral Valve Stenosis / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000503:physiopathology; D014261:Tricuspid Valve / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D014262:Tricuspid Valve Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D016278:Ventricular Function, Right / Q000502:physiology*