Right ventricular assessment in pulmonary hypertensive COPD patients: A combined radionuclide and echocardiographic study

Twenty-six patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) underwent echocardiography and radionuclide (RN) ventriuculography on the same day. Patients were divided into two groups: group 1 consisted of 11 patients without pulmonary hypertension with a mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) of 13.91 ± 4.21 mm Hg, and group 2 consisted of 15 patients with pulmonary hypertension (mPAP: 31.40 ± 6.96 mm Hg). The 2D-echocardiographic results showed that the right ventricle (RV) diameter was larger than normal in both groups of patients, especially in group 1. The RV inflow diameter was high in group 2, while in group 1 it was in the normal range. The parameters studied during RN vetriculography were the global RV ejection fraction (EF), the RV inflow EF and outflow EF. RV flobal EF was lower than normal in both groups of patients. Outflow EF was normal in group 1, but was lower in group 2. RV inflow EF was low in both groups. The simple correlation between the 2D RV end-diastolic diameter and RN RV EF was r = 0.60 (p <0.005). The simple correlation coefficient between RV inflow EF and RV inflow diameter was r = 0.60 (p <0.001), although the correlation coefficient between RV outflow diameter and RV outflow EF was low. The multiple correlation between RV diameters and mPAP was 0.72 (p <0.0001) and the multiple correlation between RV EF and mPAP was 0.65 (p <0.005). In conclusion, echocardiography was found to be a reliable method of assessing RV function in COPD patients, especially those with pulmonary hypertension.