Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-1-2015

Identifier

PMCID: PMC4369782 DOI: 10.1111/echo.12700

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Patients with free pulmonary regurgitation or mixed pulmonary stenosis and regurgitation and severely dilated right ventricles (RV) show little improvement in ventricular function after pulmonary valve replacement when assessed by traditional echocardiographic markers. We evaluated changes in right and left ventricular (LV) function using speckle tracking echocardiography in patients after SAPIEN transcatheter pulmonary valve (TPV) placement.

METHODS: Echocardiograms were evaluated at baseline, discharge, 1 and 6 months after TPV placement in 24 patients from 4 centers. Speckle tracking measures of function included peak longitudinal strain, strain rate, and early diastolic strain rate. RV fractional area change, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion, and left ventricular LV ejection fraction were assessed. Routine Doppler and tissue Doppler velocities were measured.

RESULTS: At baseline, all patients demonstrated moderate to severe pulmonary regurgitation; this improved following TPV placement. No significant changes were detected in conventional measures of RV or LV function at 6 months. RV longitudinal strain (-16.9% vs. -19.6%, P < 0.01), strain rate (-0.87 s(-1) vs. -1.16 s(-1) , P = 0.01), and LV longitudinal strain (-16.2% vs. -18.2%, P = 0.01) improved between baseline and 6 month follow-up. RV early diastolic strain rate, LV longitudinal strain rate and early diastolic strain rate showed no change.

CONCLUSION: Improvements in RV longitudinal strain, strain rate, and LV longitudinal strain are seen at 6 months post-TPV. Diastolic function does not appear to change at 6 months. Speckle tracking echocardiography may be more sensitive than traditional measures in detecting changes in systolic function after TPV implantation.

Journal Title

Echocardiography (Mount Kisco, N.Y.)

Volume

32

Issue

3

First Page

461

Last Page

469

MeSH Keywords

Adult; Echocardiography; Elasticity Imaging Techniques; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Female; Heart Valve Prosthesis; Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation; Humans; Internationality; Male; Pulmonary Valve Insufficiency; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Treatment Outcome; Ventricular Dysfunction, Left

Keywords

cardiac imaging; congenital heart disease; pulmonary valve; right ventricular function; strain-strain rate; ECG; EKG; SAPIEN heart valve; SAPIEN TPV

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