Evaluation of New Echocardiographic Methods for Measurement of Right Ventricular Function.

Studies of the last years revealed that the right ventricular function is an important predictive value for the survival of patients with congenital heart disease, pulmonary hypertension or chronic heart failure. In 2006 the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has pronounced the right ventricular dysfunction including the non-invasive assessment of the right ventricular function as preferential aim of cardiovascular research.

Many parameters are used to describe right ventricular dysfunction, but none of these has a comparable significance like the left ventricular ejection fraction. Because of the limitation of each right ventricular parameter the stepwise combination of these parameters is used to describe right ventricular function what frequently results in further problems, especially in comparison of long-term controls.

Aims of this study are the evaluation of new echocardiographic methods (3D/4D- and strain-echocardiography) for measurement of the right ventricular (RV) function. The study is carried out as prospective, monocentric trial at the Department of Cardiology of the University Hospital of Heidelberg. Three different groups are set up for the assessment of the right ventricular function: patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, patients with chronic heart failure of the left ventricle affecting the right heart and patients without structural heart disease who underwent an echocardiographic examination for other reasons (control group).

All participants are re-examined in constant intervals as clinically indicated.