Non-invasive stroke volume assessment in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: left-sided data mandatory

J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2008 Nov 5;10(1):51. doi: 10.1186/1532-429X-10-51.

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is an emerging modality in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Derivation of stroke volume (SV) from the pulmonary flow curves is considered as a standard in this respect. Our aim was to investigate the accuracy of pulmonary artery (PA) flow for measuring SV.

Methods: Thirty-four PAH patients underwent both CMR and right-sided heart catheterisation. CMR-derived SV was measured by PA flow, left (LV) and right ventricular (RV) volumes, and, in a subset of nine patients also by aortic flow. These SV values were compared to the SV obtained by invasive Fick method.

Results: For SV by PA flow versus Fick, r = 0.71, mean difference was -4.2 ml with limits of agreement 26.8 and -18.3 ml. For SV by LV volumes versus Fick, r = 0.95, mean difference was -0.8 ml with limits of agreement of 8.7 and -10.4 ml. For SV by RV volumes versus Fick, r = 0.73, mean difference -0.75 ml with limits of agreement 21.8 and -23.3 ml. In the subset of nine patients, SV by aorta flow versus Fick yielded r = 0.95, while in this subset SV by pulmonary flow versus Fick yielded r = 0.76. For all regression analyses, p < 0.0001.

Conclusion: In conclusion, SV from PA flow has limited accuracy in PAH patients. LV volumes and aorta flow are to be preferred for the measurement of SV.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Evaluation Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Aorta / physiopathology
  • Blood Flow Velocity
  • Cardiac Catheterization
  • Female
  • Heart Ventricles / physiopathology*
  • Humans
  • Hypertension, Pulmonary / diagnosis*
  • Hypertension, Pulmonary / physiopathology
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Observer Variation
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Pulmonary Artery / physiopathology*
  • Pulmonary Circulation*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Stroke Volume*
  • Young Adult