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Arterial and left ventricular end-systolic elastance in normal children
H E Khosroshahi1, E A Ozkan, M Kilic
1Department of Pediatrics, Pediatric Cardiology Unit, Hashem E. Khosroshahi, Bozok University Medical Faculty, Yozgat, Turkey. h.khosroshahi@gmail.com.
Insights
Assessing pediatric cardiac function is challenging. A new non-invasive method using left ventricle end-systolic elastance (Ees) and arterial elastance (Ea) shows promise for bedside evaluation of ventricular performance in children.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Cardiology
- Cardiovascular Physiology
- Non-invasive Cardiac Assessment
Background:
- Assessing left ventricular (LV) function in pediatric intensive care is challenging.
- Current non-invasive methods lack quantitative measures for cardiac performance and ventriculo-arterial interaction.
- Pediatric patients with conditions like heart failure or cardiomyopathies require accurate functional assessments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a non-invasive method for determining cardiovascular performance in children.
- To measure left ventricle end-systolic elastance (Ees) and arterial elastance (Ea).
- To evaluate ventriculo-arterial coupling (VAC) as an indicator of LV-arterial network interaction.
Main Methods:
- 142 otherwise healthy children (1 week to 17 years) were studied.
- Routine transthoracic echocardiographic and Doppler studies were performed.
- Statistical analysis was conducted on the collected data.
Main Results:
- A strong negative correlation was found between arterial elastance (Ea) and body surface area (BSA) (r = -0.65).
- Left ventricle end-systolic elastance (Ees) also showed a significant negative correlation with BSA (r = -0.72).
- These findings suggest a relationship between cardiac elastance parameters and physical growth in children.
Conclusions:
- The proposed simple measurement method may be applicable at the bedside.
- This technique can aid in evaluating ventricular performance in pediatric patients.
- It offers a potential tool for assessing cardiovascular dynamics in children.
Objective:
Assessing the left ventricular (LV) functions in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and those pediatric patients with compromised ventricular performance or enhanced systolic or diastolic load e.g. congestive heart failure, hypertension, dilated/hypertrophic cardiomyopathies is a real challenge. Currently used noninvasive methods fail giving quantitative measures to asses cardiac performance and do not allow evaluation of ventriculo-arterial interaction. Non-invasive method of cardiovascular performance determination by measuring left ventricle end-systolic elastance (Ees), arterial elastance (Ea) and the ventriculoarterial coupling (VAC), though interaction between LV and arterial network, is possible.
Patients And Methods:
Hundred and forty two otherwise normal children (1 week to 17 years old) were randomly selected. Routine transthoracic echocardiographic and Doppler studies were carried out by an experienced pediatric cardiologist. The results have been evaluated statistically.
Results:
We found that the Ea and Ees(sb) show powerful negative correlation with BSA (r = -0.65, -0.72 respectively) of the children.
Conclusions:
We suggest that this simple measurement method may be applied at bedside to evaluate ventricular performance of the children.
