Cardioangiographic findings in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia

The dimension, contractility, and regional wall motion of the right and left ventricles were scored on the angiograms of 13 patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. In 10 patients the right ventricle was enlarged, in eight the contractility of the right ventricle was reduced, and in all but one patient there were regional wall motion abnormalities of the right ventricle. The most common abnormality of regional wall motion was mild hypokinesia. There were bulging or dyskinetic areas in seven patients. Regional wall motion abnormalities of the left ventricle were found in five patients, two of whom also had bulging or dyskinetic areas. The reproducibility of right ventricular dimension, contractility, and regional wall motion scores was generally fair but varied unexpectedly both within and between two observers (Kendall's Tau 0.38-0.92). The score values of regional wall motion for some of the segments differed considerably within and between observers. One of the observers consistently gave higher scores than the other. These data suggest that a more objective approach is needed for evaluating angiographic changes in arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia.