Estimation of cardiac output and pulmonary vascular resistance by contrast echocardiography transit time measurement: a prospective pilot study

Authors

Brian G. Choi, George Washington UniversityFollow
Reza Sanai, George Washington University
Benjamin Yang, George Washington University
Heather A. Young, George Washington UniversityFollow
Ramesh Mazhari, George Washington University
Jonathan Reiner, George Washington University
Jannet Lewis, George Washington UniversityFollow

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

10-31-2014

Journal

Cardiovascular Ultrasound

Volume

VOlume 12

Inclusive Pages

Article number 44

Abstract

Background

Studies with other imaging modalities have demonstrated a relationship between contrast transit and cardiac output (CO) and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). We tested the hypothesis that the transit time during contrast echocardiography could accurately estimate both CO and PVR compared to right heart catheterization (RHC).

Methods

27 patients scheduled for RHC had 2D-echocardiogram immediately prior to RHC. 3 ml of DEFINITY contrast followed by a 10 ml saline flush was injected, and a multi-cycle echo clip was acquired from the beginning of injection to opacification of the left ventricle. 2D-echo based calculations of CO and PVR along with the DEFINITY-based transit time calculations were subsequently correlated with the RHC-determined CO and PVR.

Results

The transit time from full opacification of the right ventricle to full opacification of the left ventricle inversely correlated with CO (r = -0.61, p < 0.001). The transit time from peak opacification of the right ventricle to first appearance in the left ventricle moderately correlated with PVR (r = 0.46, p < 0.01). Previously described echocardiographic methods for the determination of CO (Huntsman method) and PVR (Abbas and Haddad methods) did not correlate with RHC-determined values (p = 0.20 for CO, p = 0.18 and p = 0.22 for PVR, respectively). The contrast transit time method demonstrated reliable intra- (p < 0.0001) and inter-observer correlation (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

We describe a novel method for the quantification of CO and estimation of PVR using contrast echocardiography transit time. This technique adds to the methodologies used for noninvasive hemodynamic assessment, but requires further validation to determine overall applicability.

Comments

Reproduced with permission of BioMed Central. Cardiovascular Ultrasound.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

APA Citation

Choi, B.G., Sanai, R., Yang, B., Young, H.A., Mazhari, R. et al. (2014). Estimation of cardiac output and pulmonary vascular resistance by contrast echocardiography transit time measurement: a prospective pilot study. Cardiovascular Ultrasound, 12:44.

Peer Reviewed

1

Open Access

1