[Assessment of the ejection fraction of the right ventricle with echocardiography]

The purpose of this article is to evaluate and compare the right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) as parameter of right ventricular function by means of echocardiography. We studied 16 patients (15 male, 1 female) from 48 to 82 years of age (mean 58 years) from whom 8 had history of myocardial infarction (MI) with extension to the right ventricle (RV) in a period of time no longer than 7 days. The MI was diagnosed clinically as well as by enzymes, electrocardiogram and cardiac gammagram with 99mTc-pyrophosphate. The other 8 patients were healthy subjects or patients with stable angina pectoris. In all patients a two dimensional echocardiogram was performed with and apical four and two chamber view according to Simpson's rule; a subcostal approach was performed for the area-length method of Dodge. The values obtained of RVEF with each method were compared with those obtained by nuclear medicine. The apical views were obtained in 14 patients (87%) and the RV outflow tract was seen in 15 patients (93%). There were no significant statistical difference between the two methods. The highest correlation for RVEF respect to nuclear medicine was obtained with the area-length method with r = 0.85 and p less than 0.001 while for the Simpson method we obtained r = 0.79 and a p less than 0.001. We conclude that the determination of the RVEF is achievable in patients with MI of the RV and area-length method is the most useful.