Right Ventricular Isovolumic Acceleration in Children with Patent Ductus Arteriosus: Short and Mid-term Follow-up after Percutaneous Device Closure

In patients with patent ducts arteriosus, cardiovascular system is generally exposed to much overload and subsequently several complications as congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and infective endocarditis. These complications depend on the size of the defect and the timing of intervention [1]. It is important to close PDA to prevent occurrence of these complications [2]. Today percutaneous transcatheter closure method is the first choice for PDA closure, mostly utilizing Amplatzer Duct Occluder. Right ventricular echocardiographic indices before and after PDA closure are scarcely studied. Right ventricular systolic function can be determined with assessment of tricuspid annular motion utilizing pulsed-wave Doppler tissue imaging [3-5]. Why.... Pauliks et al. [3] and Turhan et al. [4] reported that IVA assessment seems to be a more reliable and sensitive for predicting cardiac function than tissue Doppler imaging (TDI)-derived peak systolic velocity. Tissue Doppler echocardiography (TDE) derived myocardial performance index (MPI) is a widely accepted parameter for quantitative assessment of myocardial function [5], and it is more sensitive for global myocardial function than separately assessing systolic and diastolic function [6].