Echocardiographic assessment of right ventricular function in responders and non-responders to cardiac resynchronization therapy

The aim of this study was to determine whether baseline right ventricular (RV) function assessed by standard echocardiography may indicate patients who will respond to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). The data of 57 patients (54 men, 95%), aged 66.4 ±8.7 years with heart failure (HF) having a CRT device implanted were collected. All patients had left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤ 35% and QRS complex duration ≥ 120 ms. Echocardiographic examination with tissue Doppler imaging techniques and complex RV evaluation were performed at baseline and three months after CRT onset. Three months after CRT implantation, patients responding to CRT, defined as a reduction of left ventricle end-systolic volume (LVESV) of at least 10% (n = 34), compared to patients with a reduction of LVESV of less than 10% (n = 23), had at baseline a smaller right atrium diameter (47.85 ±11.33 mm vs. 52.65 ±8.69 mm; p = 0.028), higher TAPSE (14.56 ±2.57 mm vs. 13.04 ±2.93 mm; p = 0.030) and lower grade of tricuspid valve regurgitation (1.82 ±0.97 vs. 2.3 ±0.88; p = 0.033). This study showed that there are differences in baseline right ventricular function between responders and non-responders to CRT. Yet in our study, none of the baseline RV parameters provided any value in identifying patients who would respond to CRT.