title: Assessment of right ventricular structure and function in mouse model of pulmonary artery constriction by transthoracic echocardiography.
abstract: Emerging clinical data support the notion that RV dysfunction is critical to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease and heart failure(1-3). Moreover, the RV is significantly affected in pulmonary diseases such as pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH). In addition, the RV is remarkably sensitive to cardiac pathologies, including left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, valvular disease or RV infarction(4). To understand the role of RV in the pathogenesis of cardiac diseases, a reliable and noninvasive method to access the RV structurally and functionally is essential. A noninvasive trans-thoracic echocardiography (TTE) based methodology was established and validated for monitoring dynamic changes in RV structure and function in adult mice. To impose RV stress, we employed a surgical model of pulmonary artery constriction (PAC) and measured the RV response over a 7-day period using a high-frequency ultrasound microimaging system. Sham operated mice were used as controls. Images were acquired in lightly anesthetized mice at baseline (before surgery), day 0 (immediately post-surgery), day 3, and day 7 (post-surgery). Data was analyzed offline using software. Several acoustic windows (B, M, and Color Doppler modes), which can be consistently obtained in mice, allowed for reliable and reproducible measurement of RV structure (including RV wall thickness, end-diastolic and end-systolic dimensions), and function (fractional area change, fractional shortening, PA peak velocity, and peak pressure gradient) in normal mice and following PAC. Using this method, the pressure-gradient resulting from PAC was accurately measured in real-time using Color Doppler mode and was comparable to direct pressure measurements performed with a Millar high-fidelity microtip catheter. Taken together, these data demonstrate that RV measurements obtained from various complimentary views using echocardiography are reliable, reproducible and can provide insights regarding RV structure and function. This method will enable a better understanding of the role of RV cardiac dysfunction.
authors: Cardiac Muscle Research Labratory, Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
authors: Hui-Wen
authors: HW
authors: Cheng
authors: Sudeshna
authors: S
authors: Fisch
authors: Susan
authors: S
authors: Cheng
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Bauer
authors: Soeun
authors: S
authors: Ngoy
authors: Yiling
authors: Y
authors: Qiu
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Guan
authors: Shikha
authors: S
authors: Mishra
authors: Christopher
authors: C
authors: Mbah
authors: Ronglih
authors: R
authors: Liao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016278:Ventricular Function, Right