Assessment of right ventricular function in patients with right ventricular overload using real-time three-dimensional echocardiography

Objective To evaluate global and segmental right ventricular (RV) systolic functions in patients with excessive volume or pressure load using real-time three-dimensional echocardiography(RT-3DE). Methods Forty-five patients with RV volume overload, 45 patients with RV pressure overload and 45 healthy subjects were underwent RT-3DE. RV global and segmental (inflow, body, outflow) end-diastolic volume (EDV), end-systolic volume (ESV), stroke volume (SV) and ejection fraction (EF) were analyzed with TomTec software. The correlations between EF with the three-dimensional method and two-dimensional parameters including right ventricle systolic pressure(RVSP) were discussed. Results Global EDV and ESV increased significantly in both patient groups compared with controls (all P 0.05). Compensated increase of SV was found in sixty percent of patients with volume overload but none with pressure overload (P<0.05). Global EF decreased significantly in both of patient groups (all P<0.05), which was more significant patients with pressure overload (P<0.05). Different patterns of the regional dysfunction were found among the different RV segments. No correlation was found between RVSP and global or segmental EF in patients with pressure overload. Conclusions RT-3DE could be used to assess global and segmental RV systolic function in patients with pressure and volume overload. Key words: Echocardiography, real-time three-dimensional; Ventricular function, right; Right ventricular overload