Tudor CONSTANTINESCU, Stefania Lucia MAGDA, Rodica NICULESCU, Raluca Ileana MINCU, Dragos ZAHARIA, Claudia Lucia TOMA, Mircea CINTEZA and Miron Alexandru BOGDAN

ABSTRACT

Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) represents an emerging pathology in modern medicine. Transthoracic echocardiography is an inexpensive and reproducible method and it is the most commonly used non-invasive diagnostic tool to asses pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) and the function of the right ventricle. Although, the right heart catheterization is still considered as the standard for the diagnosis, according to the last guidelines, the new echocardiographic methods may offer an improved value in the PAH evaluation.

Aim: To evaluate if cardiac ultrasonography data correlate with catheterization results in patients with PAH (Group I Dana Point 2008), and to compare the ultrasonography evaluation of PAH patients with that of normal.

Methods: 15 consecutive patients (pts) (52±15 yrs, 5 men, time from onset of symptoms 1.6±1.7 years) with PAH of different aetiologies (12 pts with idiopathic PAH, 2 pts with PAH associated with scleroderma and one with persistent PAH after atrial septal defect (ASD) closure) were evaluated through: 1. clinical examination (NYHA class); 2. exercise capacity (6 minute walking test – 6MWT); 3. conventional echocardiography (diameter of right ventricle – RVD and right atrium, fractional area shortening – FAS, TAPSE, pulmonary ascension time – PA, systolic and mean PAP -sPAP, mPAP, tricuspid E/A ratio, cardiac index-CI) and 4. Tissue Doppler Imaging – TDI (systolic and diastolic myocardial velocities at the tricuspid annulus – S, D, A); 5. right heart catheterization (sPAP, mPAP, CI, pulmonary vascular resistance – PVR) We compared classical and TDI echo parameters with those obtained from 15 normal subjects, matched in age and sex.

Results: PAH patients had high sPAP and mPAP with right heart dilation (RV - 44.8±7.3 mm), depressed TAPSE (16.2±5.9 mm) and cardiac index and low TDI systolic velocities at tricuspid level (7.3±2.9 cm/s). All parameters differed statistically significant from normal. There were no significant correlations between ultrasonography and catheterization (cath) parameters (sPAP 92±28.2 echo vs. 106.4±25.8 mmHg cath; mPAP 47.9±8.4 echo vs. 65.8±17.3 mmHg cath), excepting for CI 2.3±1.2 l/ min/m2 vs. 2.08±0.3 ml/min/m2 ) and PVR (16.5 ± 15.3 Wood U echo, vs. 19.6 ± 7.9 cath).

Conclusion: Classic and TDI cardiac ultrasonography represents a good screening and monitoring tool for PAH patients, but tends to underestimate the severity of the disease, leaving right heart catheterization as the essential diagnostic method for this rare disease.

Keywords: pulmonary arterial hypertension, echocardiography, Tissue Doppler Imaging, right heart catheterization

Full text | PDF

Stefan DUMITRACHE-RUJINSKI, George CALCAIANU, Dragos ZAHARIA, Claudia Lucia TOMA and Miron BOGDAN

ABSTRACT

Background and objectives: Nocturnal pulse-oximetry is a screening method used in the diagnostic approach of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS). As the pattern of the overnight pulse-oximetry is different in patients with morbid obesity, we assessed the role of overnight pulse-oximetry as a screening method in subjects with a BMI >40 kg/m2 and in those with a BMI <30 kg/m2 .

Material and methods: We prospectively evaluated 199 individuals with high pre-test clinical suspicion of OSAS. Of these, 123 patients were morbidly obese (Group A) and 76 were non-obese (Group B). We performed six channel cardio-respiratory polygraphy and assessed the correlation between the Desaturation Index (DI) and the Apnea Hypopnea Index (AHI) for both groups.

Results: In group A: 116 patients (94.3%) were diagnosed with OSAS (AHI>5/hour); mean age: 59.4±10.9 years; mean BMI: 44.8±4.9 kg/m2 . The mean DI was 47.2±27.6/hour and the mean AHI: 46.5±27.6/hour. Mean average SaO2 was 88.5±6.3 %. In group B, 65 patients (85.52%) were diagnosed with SAS; mean age: 51.2 ± 12.7 years; mean BMI: 27.24±2.2 kg/m2 .The mean DI was 23.12 ± 18.35/ hour and the mean AHI: 28.8 ± 18.5/hour. Mean average SaO2 was 93.7±2.07 %. A significant positive correlation (correlation index rA= 0.863 and rB= 0.877) was found between DI and AHI in both groups (p<0.001).

Conclusion: Assessment of the Desaturation Index by nocturnal pulse-oximetry maintains its utility as a screening method for OSAS in both obese and non-obese patients with high clinical pre-test suspicion, despite the fact that the basal nocturnal saturation was found to be lower in group A. Keywords: overnight pulse-oximetry, morbid obesity, desaturation index, sleep apnea

Keywords: overnight pulse-oximetry, morbid obesity, desaturation index, sleep apnea

Full text | PDF