Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine

The present study aimed to evaluate hemodynamics and right ventricular function in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) using transthoracic echocardiography and to compare these results with measurements obtained using right‐sided heart catheterization (RHC). A total of 75 patients with PH were examined using echocardiography and RHC. Patients were divided into the following two groups according to their difference between SPAPecho and SPAPRHC measure‐ ment: The overestimated group and underestimated group. The overestimated group included the subgroups groupover‐A (differ‐ ence <20 mmHg) and groupover‐B (difference ≥20 mmHg), and the underestimated group included groupunder‐A (absolute value of the difference <20 mmHg) and groupunder‐B (absolute value of the difference ≥20 mmHg). SPAPecho measurements were revealed to be significantly positively correlated with SPAPRHC measurements (r=0.794; P<0.01). Among all echocardiographic measurements, only tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was significantly different between groups; it was increased in groupover‐A and groupunder‐A compared with groupover‐B (P<0.01). Although SPAP measure‐ ments obtained using echocardiography were significantly positively correlated with those obtained using RHC, a high proportion of overestimation or underestimation of SPAP by echocardiography remained. Introduction Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterized by an increased pressure in the pulmonary arteries, leading to increased right‐sided heart load and dysfunction (1‐3). PH is diagnosed by a mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) ≥25 mmHg measured during right‐sided heart catheterization (RHC) at rest whilst at sea level (4). PH is a hemodynamic condition caused by a variety of diseases of the lungs and heart, or other systemic diseases (5‐8). RHC remains the primary standard for the evaluation of PH, with the ability to exclude left‐to‐right cardiac shunt and other severe left‐sided heart conditions (9,10). However, RHC is invasive and has potentially fatal complica‐ tions (11). Therefore, various noninvasive methods have been used to diagnose PH, including echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear imaging (12‐19). Transthoracic echocardiography is a promising method for the evaluation of PH, and right‐sided heart structure and function (20,21). A previous study demonstrated that systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (SPAP) and mPAP measured during RHC are similar to measurements obtained by echocardiography (22). However, concerns regarding the accuracy of echocardiography for measuring SPAP remain (23‐26). In the present study, the clinical data of 75 patients with PH were enrolled and the results of echocardiography were compared with those of RHC. Factors that affect the accuracy of echocardiography in the evaluation of PH were analyzed and discussed. Materials and methods Patients. Between August 2011 and December 2014, a total of 92 patients with clinical manifestations of PH were enrolled in the present study, recruited from the Heart Center of Beijing Chao Yang Hospital (Beijing, China). Among these patients, 17 were excluded due to contraindications such as severe arrhythmias, renal inadequacy, and serious heart failure. Therefore, a total of 75 patients with PH were included in the present study. Among these 75 patients, 22 were male and 53 were female, with a mean age of 46.8±12.5 years. The present study followed the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Ethics Committee of Beijing Chao Evaluation of the hemodynamics and right ventricular function in pulmonary hypertension by echocardiography compared with right‐sided heart catheterization YIDAN LI, YIDAN WANG, HONG LI, WEIWEI ZHU, XIANGLI MENG and XIUZHANG LU Department of Echocardiography, Heart Center, Beijing Chao Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100020, P.R. China Received April 12, 2016 Accepted March 17, 2017 DOI: 10.3892/etm.2017.4953 Correspondence to: Professor Yidan Li or Professor Xiuzhang Lu, Department of Echocardiography, Heart Center, Beijing Chao Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, 8 Gongren Tiyuchang Nanlu, Chaoyang, Beijing 100020, P.R. China E‐mail: [email protected] E‐mail: [email protected]