Background: Presence of severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR) has a significant impact on assessment of right ventricular function (RVF) in transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). High trans-valvular pendulous volume leads to backward-unloading of the right ventricle. Consequently, established cut-offs for normal systolic performance may overestimate true systolic RVF. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed entailing all patients who underwent TTE at our institution between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2016. Only patients with normal left ventricular systolic function and with no other valvular lesion were included. All recorded loops were re-read by one experienced examiner. Patients without severe TR (defined as vena contracta width ≥7 mm) were excluded. All-cause 2-year mortality was chosen as the end-point. The prognostic value of several RVF parameters was tested. Results: The final cohort consisted of 220 patients, 88/220 (40%) were male. Median age was 69 years (IQR 52–79), all-cause two-year mortality was 29%, median TAPSE was 19 mm (15–22) and median FAC was 42% (30–52). In multivariate analysis, TAPSE with the cutoff 17 mm and FAC with the cutoff 35% revealed non-significant hazard ratios (HR) of 0.75 (95%CI 0.396–1.421, p = 0.38) and 0.845 (95%CI 0.383–1.867, p = 0.68), respectively. TAPSE with the cutoff 19 mm and visual eyeballing significantly predicted survival with HRs of 0.512 (95%CI 0.296–0.886, p = 0.017) and 1.631 (95%CI 1.101–2.416, p = 0.015), respectively. Conclusions: This large-scale all-comer study confirms that RVF is one of the main drivers of mortality in patients with severe isolated TR. However, the current cut-offs for established echocardiographic parameters did not predict survival. Further studies should investigate the prognostic value of higher thresholds for RVF parameters in these patients.
Right ventricular function in an operating room model of mechanical left ventricular assistance and its effects in patients with depressed left ventricular function.
