Echocardiographic Evaluation of Right Ventricular Involvement and Left Ventricular Diastolic Filling in Patients with Pure Restrictive Ventilatory Impairment

Right ventricular abnormalities in patients with pure restrictive ventilatory impairment (PRVI) has not been extensively studied up to date. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the left ventricular diastol i c function and the right ventric ula r involvement in patients with PRVI by Do ppler echocardiography.
METHODS
Two-dimens ional, M-mode, and Doppler echocardiography were performed on 24 patients, 21 men and 3 women, with PRVI due to several etiologies, and 23 healthy subjects as the control group. Patients with any disease that affect the Ieft ventricular functions were not included in the study. All subjects underwent respiratory tests and arterial blood gas assessment. Patients were grouped according to the severity of restrictive ventilatory impairme nt. An echo-Doppler examination was made to measure left ventricular ejection fraction and diastolic filling parameters and right ventricular end-diastolic wall thickness, end-diastolic area, and diastolic fi lling parameters, and pulmonary acceleration time and mean arterial pulmonary pressure ([mPAP = 78 - (0.52 x pulmonary acceleration time]).
RESULTS
Right ventricular area index was higher in patients with PR VI than that in healthy subjects (9.4±2. 1 cm2/m2, 7.9± 1.6 cm2/m2, respectively, p<0.05). Right ventricular wall th ickness was higher in patients with mild-moderate and severe PRVI than that in the control group (3,8±0.6 mm, 4. 1±1.1 mm, 2.8::!:0.4 mm, respectively, pKeywords: Restrictive pulınonary impairme nt, echocardiography, pulmonary hypertension