Echocardiographic Evaluation of Right Ventricular Function in Patients with Chronic Pre-Capillary Pulmonary Hypertension

In chronic pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension the right ventricle undergoes extensive remodeling (an increase in volume, a change in shape and an increase in wall thickness) that allows it to maintain an adequate right ventricular (RV) output at rest despite the high afterload. The anatomic characteristics of the pressure overloaded right ventricle have been described using various imaging techniques, including echocardiography and nuclear magnetic resonance [1-4] . However, despite a widespread agreement on the importance of right ventricular function in patients with chronic pulmonary hypertension (both to guide therapy and for risk stratification) the non-invasive assessment of right ventricular morphology and function by means of echocardiography has traditionally been hampered by the complex geometry of this cardiac chamber, so that its evaluation has often been qualitative [5-8] .