Tissue Doppler study of the right ventricle with a multisegmental approach: comparison with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether systolic right ventricular (RV) function and myocardial performance index (MPI) studied with a multisegmental approach improve the accuracy of RV function estimation based on tricuspid lateral annulus.

METHODS: Systolic and isovolumic contraction velocities, isovolumic acceleration, regional MPI from the tricuspid lateral and septal annulus, and basal and apical RV free wall and blood pool MPI were obtained in 69 patients and compared with RV ejection fraction (EF) by cardiac magnetic resonance.

RESULTS: Average systolic velocity from 2 annular sites had the highest correlation to the RVEF (r = 0.74; P < .001) and highest accuracy to estimate RVEF > 45% (cutoff = 7.0 cm/s; area under the curve 0.908; 95% confidence interval, 0.84-0.98; sensitivity 83%; specificity 86%; P < .0001). Average annular systolic velocity correlated with the RVEF more strongly than the lateral annular systolic velocity in patients with and without dilated RVs and in patients with and without pulmonary arterial hypertension. Four-region average MPI correlated with the RVEF (r = 0.70; P < .001) more strongly than regional MPI and blood pool MPI, with a higher accuracy to estimate RVEF > 45% (cutoff = 0.66; area under the curve 0.849; 95% CI, 0.76-0.94; sensitivity 86%; specificity 75%; P < .0001). Lateral annular measurements were mostly determined by the RVEF, whereas septal annular measurements were almost equally influenced by RVEF and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Consequently, when the RVEF and LVEF were discordant, only the lateral annular systolic velocity and MPI determined RVEF.

CONCLUSION: Average systolic velocity from 2 tricuspid annular sites provides the most accurate estimate of RVEF if the RVEF and LVEF are not discordant.