Exercise Stress Echocardiography of the Pulmonary Circulation

Exercise stress echocardiography for the study of the pulmonary circulation.

Exercise stress tests have been used for the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension, but with variable protocols and uncertain limits of normal. The pulmonary haemodynamic response to progressively increased workload and recovery was investigated by Doppler echocardiography in 25 healthy volunteers aged 19-62 yrs (mean 36 yrs). Mean pulmonary artery pressure ((Ppa)) was estimated from the maximum ...

Pulmonary circulation at exercise.

The pulmonary circulation is a high-flow and low-pressure circuit, with an average resistance of 1 mmHg/min/L in young adults, increasing to 2.5 mmHg/min/L over four to six decades of life. Pulmonary vascular mechanics at exercise are best described by distensible models. Exercise does not appear to affect the time constant of the pulmonary circulation or the longitudinal distribution of resist...

Progress in Exercise Stress Imaging of the Pulmonary Circulation and RV.

SEE PAGE 532 E xercise stress measurements have been used since the early years of cardiac catheterization (1). A mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) >30 mm Hg during exercise was an entry criterion for the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s registry of primary pulmonary hypertension, now called pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), in the 1980s (2). However, exercise measurements fell fro...

Effects of acute hypoxia and exercise on the pulmonary circulation.

Acute ST segment elevation during exercise stress echocardiography due to severe pulmonary hypertension

A 51-year-old female undergoing an outpatient stress echocardiogram to evaluate atypical chest pain developed acute ST elevation in the anterior precordial leads on electrocardiogram following exercise. Echocardiography revealed a severe rise in pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) with marked right ventricular (RV) enlargement and interventricular septum flattening. Subsequently, cardiac ...