Assessment and Prognostic Relevance of Right Ventricular Contractile Reserve in Patients With Severe Pulmonary Hypertension

摘要

Right ventricular (RV) pump function is of essential clinical and prognostic importance in a variety of heart and lung diseases and in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).1"5 Survival in pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients depends on the capability of the RV to adapt to chronically elevated pulmonary artery pressures.6 Therefore, an accurate evaluation of RV pump function is crucial for screening, diagnosis, and follow-up assessment in PH.7 However, it is difficult to assess RV function because of its complex geometry and load dependence and because of inadequate standardization of the assessment.8 This is true for both noninvasive and invasive techniques.