Noninvasive determination of pulmonary arterial systolic pressure by continuous wave Doppler

We evaluated the accuracy of continuous wave Doppler for estimating pulmonary arterial systolic pressure in patients with tricuspid regurgitation. Of 44 patients with a variety of cardiac disorders, 39 (89%) had Doppler-detected tricuspid regurgitation. Adequate spectral profiles of the flow signals were obtained in 34 of them (87%), representing 77% of the entire group. Continuous wave Doppler ultrasound was used to measure the maximum velocity of the regurgitant jet, and by applying the modified Bernoulli equation, the systolic pressure gradient between the right ventricle and the right atrium was calculated. Pulmonary arterial systolic pressure was estimated by adding the transtricuspid gradient to the mean right atrial pressure, and correlated well with catheterization values (r = 0.96). The correlation coefficient was not significantly modified if mean right atrial pressures were excluded in the calculations (r = 0.91). Continuous wave Doppler constitutes a sensitive method for the detection of tricuspid regurgitation. The method using the tricuspid gradient provides an accurate estimation of pulmonary arterial systolic pressure. Combined with other available methods (pulsed wave Doppler), this noninvasive technique can yield information comparable with that obtained at catheterization.