Right ventricular time intervals - Comparison between pulsed wave Doppler and tissue Doppler imaging

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Echocardiography
• Cardiac Physiology

Background:

• Cardiac time intervals are crucial for assessing systolic and diastolic function.
• Echocardiography, using pulsed wave Doppler (PWD) and tissue Doppler imaging (TDI), is commonly used to measure these intervals.
• Evaluating right ventricular (RV) function is essential in cardiovascular health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the agreement between PWD and TDI in evaluating right ventricular (RV) time intervals in healthy adults.
• To determine the interchangeability of PWD and TDI for various RV functional parameters.
• To identify which RV time intervals show the best agreement between the two echocardiographic techniques.

Main Methods:

• 123 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study.
• Both PWD and TDI were used to measure RV filling time (RVFT), RV ejection time (RVET), heart rate-corrected total filling time (t-FT), total ejection time (t-ET), total isovolumic time (t-IVT), and myocardial performance index (MPI).
• Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Pearson correlation (r) were calculated to assess agreement and correlation.

Main Results:

• Excellent agreement and correlation were observed between PWD and TDI for RVFT (ICC 0.94, r 0.91) and good agreement for RVET (ICC 0.63, r 0.68).
• Good agreement and strong correlation were found for heart rate-corrected intervals: t-FT (ICC 0.67, r 0.59) and t-ET (ICC 0.71, r 0.74).
• Lower agreement was found for RV t-IVT (ICC 0.52, r 0.57) and MPI (ICC 0.36, r 0.50).

Conclusions:

• PWD and TDI are interchangeable for measuring RVFT, RVET, t-FT, and t-ET in healthy adults.
• The agreement between PWD and TDI is limited for assessing RV t-IVT and MPI.
• These findings support the use of both PWD and TDI for specific RV functional assessments, highlighting areas where caution is needed.