Noninvasive estimation of LV filling pressures in heart failure and reduced ejection fraction: revisited and verified.

l i p D b p d a s m m a d c s w n fi t w c m a a t p o i e t m p c i n g Echocardiography plays a key role in the evaluation of patients presenting with congestive heart failure (CHF). This includes diagnosis, prognosis, and guiding treatment decisions. Aside from the important measurements of left ventricular (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (EF), Doppler can be successfully applied to assess LV and right ventricular hemodynamic status. Several studies have shown the accuracy of these techniques against the invasive gold standard (1–12). In fact, Doppler echocardiography provides data that are comparable to that obtained by a pulmonary artery (PA) catheter (13).