[Current aspects in diagnosis of chronic cor pulmonale]

Pulmonary hypertension occurs frequently in patients with chronic obstructive lung diseases and contributes to a poor prognosis. Most common symptoms in addition to dyspnea, cough and expectoration are fatigue, syncopes, chest pain and peripheral oedema. No single non-invasive method such as lung function testing, blood gas analysis, ECG, chest x-ray, myocardial scintigraphy and isotopic radionuclide ventriculography is sufficiently reliable for predicting pulmonary hypertension. Only the combination leads to the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension and cor pulmonale within acceptable limits. Echocardiography was found to be a reliable method of assessing right ventricular function. Doppler echocardiography is most useful with a specificity and sensitivity of about 80%. As "golden standard" cardiac catheterisation is still required for the measurement of pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), cardiac output (CO) and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) at rest and exercise.