Pulmonary Artery Pressure Measurement in Patients with Rheumatic Mitral Valve Disease by Using Color M-mode Doppler Echocardiography

Non-invasive esrimation of pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) by echocardiography is an important tool in routine elinical practice. The aim of the study was to investigate the application of color M-mode Doppler echocardiography in measurement of pulmonary artery pressure as a complementary method. We studied 68 patients (38 F, 30 M) who have normal right ventricular systolic function with a mean age of 36.2± 15.8 years. Of 68 patients, 44 were in sinus rhythm and rest of them in atrial fibrillation. During echocardiographic examination color baseline shift was adjusted to produce color aliasing and M-mode cursor was adjusted at the tips of the pulmonary valves to be as parallel the pulmonary flow as possible. After that, color Mmode Doppler (flow propagation velocity (FPV) cm/see) was measured as the slope of the aliasing velocity of the pulmonary flow. FPV measurement was successfully performed 59 of 68 (%87) patients from pulmonar artery. Pulmonary artery pressure were measured using tricuspid regurgitation jet (TRJ), and pulmonary flow acceleration time (PAT) me thods by ech ocardio graph y. Cardiac catheterization (CA TH) w ere al so performed to all patients for P AP measurement. As a result, mean PAP were obtain 33.0±14.2 mmHg, 37.2±12.7mmHg, and 32.9±16.2 mmHg by FPV, PAT and CATH methods, respectively. Also reasonable coefficients were obtained between FPV and TRJ, PAT, CATH methods (r=-0.71 , pKeywords: Pulmonary arterial pressure, color Mmode echocardiography.