Authors: Alessandro Bellofiore Alejandro RoldánAlzate Matthieu Besse Heidi B Kellihan Daniel W Consigny Christopher J Francois Naomi C Chesler
Publish Date: 2012/08/04
Volume: 41, Issue: 1, Pages: 195-204
Abstract
Pulmonary hypertension PH can impact right ventricular RV function and alter pulmonary artery PA stiffness The response of the RV to an acute increase in pulmonary pressure is unclear In addition the relation between total pulmonary arterial compliance and local PA stiffness has not been investigated We used a combination of right heart catheterization RHC and magnetic resonance imaging MRI to assess PA stiffening and RV function in dogs before and after acute embolization We hypothesized that in moderate acute PH the RV is able to compensate for increased afterload maintaining adequate coupling Also we hypothesized that in the absence of PA remodeling the relative area change in the proximal PA RAC a noninvasive index of local area strain correlates with the total arterial compliance stroke volumetopulse pressure ratio Our results indicate that after embolization RV function is able to accommodate the demand for increased stroke work without uncoupling albeit at the expense of a reduction of efficiency In this acute model RAC showed excellent correlation with total arterial compliance We used this correlation to assess PA pulse pressure PP from noninvasive MRI measurements of stroke volume and RAC We demonstrated that in acute pulmonary embolism MRI estimates of PP are remarkably close to measurements from RHC These results if confirmed in chronic PH and clinically suggest that monitoring of PH progression by noninvasive methods may be possible
Keywords: