Improved radionuclide method for assessment of pulmonary artery pressure in COPD.

An improved method of noninvasive assessment of pulmonary arterial pressure is presented. The already existing radionuclide method for assessment of pulmonary arterial pressure based on right ventricular ejection fraction, although having a relatively good positive predictive accuracy (75 percent), lacks in specificity and correlates only weakly with pulmonary arterial pressure, r = .66. In the present study a diastolic index of the ventricular performance (right atrial early diastolic emptying rate) was used to improve the predictive value of the right ventricular ejection fraction. Phase image analysis was used to differentiate the right atrium from the rest of the cardiac structures, and right atrial emptying rate was calculated after time activity curves were generated. A reasonably good correlation was found between right atrial emptying rate and pulmonary arterial pressure, r = .75. This diastolic index, however, was limited in its ability to detect patients with COPD and normal pulmonary arterial pressure (negative predictive value 62 percent). In order to improve the predictive value of right ventricular ejection fraction, having low specificity (33 percent) but high sensitivity (93 percent), a score index was constructed, combining right ventricular ejection fraction with right atrial emptying rate (having high specificity 100 percent, but modest sensitivity 78 percent). Score index proved to be an excellent indicator of pulmonary arterial hypertension (positive predictive value 93 percent, negative predictive value 100 percent.