[Clinical significance of echocardiographic techniques of right heart examination]

Study of the role and function of the right heart and the peculiarities of their remodeling in a range of diseases (heart valvular diseases, pulmonary thromboembolism and its complications, cardiomyopathy, combined cardiorespiratory pathology, heart failure, essential hypertension etc.) is of great scientific and practical interest. An optimal right ventricular (RV) examination should be precise, reflect its function objectively, be feasible in everyday clinical practice, and provide accurate prognosis. The last decade has been marked by search for possibilities to evaluate the systolic and diastolic R Vfunction, especially after clinical introduction of Doppler EchoCG. However, publications dedicated to the protocol of EchoCG study of the RV, the normal values of its structure and function, and their clinical interpretation are still rare. The authors of the present work analyze studies on the investigation of the R V and offer a protocol with a method of calculation of EchoCG parameters and their reference values concerning the right heart.