Poor correlation of estimated pulmonary artery systolic pressure between echocardiography and right heart catheterization in patients awaiting cardiac transplantation: results from the clinical arena.
BACKGROUND
Pulmonary arterial pressure measurement is an integral part of the pre-heart transplant evaluation. In the clinical arena, the correlation and agreement between pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) measured by Doppler echocardiography versus catheterization in pre-heart transplant patients has not been studied.


METHODS
Data on all patients evaluated for heart transplantation at our program between 2003 and 2005 (n = 176) were retrospectively reviewed. Patients with both transthoracic echocardiography (with interpretable images) and right heart catheterization performed were included (n = 108; mean time difference, 2.2 days; median, 2 days). The tricuspid valve regurgitant jet was identified by color flow Doppler and jet maximum velocity was measured by continuous wave Doppler. The PASP was estimated by using the modified Bernoulli equation and adding right atrial pressure. We correlated echocardiographically estimated PASP with that measured by right heart catheterization.


RESULTS
Mean estimated PASP by echocardiography was 46.6 +/- 13.7 mmHg versus 44.8 +/- 17.9 mmHg by right heart catheterization (P = NS). However, the correlation between echocardiographic and measured PASP was poor (r = 0.49, P < .001). The correlation was poor in both ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy.


CONCLUSIONS
Among patients referred for heart transplant evaluation, there is poor agreement and correlation between echocardiographically estimated PASP and values obtained by right heart catheterization. Furthermore, echocardiographically obtained estimates of PASP should not be exclusively relied upon to exclude heart transplant recipient candidates.
Attaran
R R
RR
Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Sarver Heart Center, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Ramaraj
R
R
Sorrell
V L
VL
Movahed
M R
MR
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000379:methods*; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004452:Echocardiography; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000601:surgery*; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013599:Systole / Q000502:physiology*; D014262:Tricuspid Valve Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014682:Vena Cava, Inferior / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D014850:Waiting Lists