Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Heart Journal logoLink to British Heart Journal
. 1986 Jul;56(1):33–44. doi: 10.1136/hrt.56.1.33

Echocardiographic measurement of the normal adult right ventricle.

R Foale, P Nihoyannopoulos, W McKenna, A Kleinebenne, A Nadazdin, E Rowland, G Smith, A Klienebenne
PMCID: PMC1277383  PMID: 3730205

Abstract

In studies of the right ventricle the complexities of chamber shape may be overcome by use of multiple tomographic imaging planes. An established protocol for the echocardiographic description of the heart was used to examine the right ventricle in an ordered series of transducer locations and orientations. Diastolic measurements were made of the right ventricular inflow tract, outflow tract, and right ventricular body, and the range and reproducibility of normal values for cavity size and right ventricular free wall thickness were established. These measurements of cavity size in 41 normal subjects were highly reproducible and the views that were used correctly described the truncated and ellipsoidal shape of the right ventricular inflow tract and body with a separately aligned outflow tract. Cavity trabeculation prevented measurement of the free wall thickness in some areas; however, values of nearly twice the previously reported upper limit of normal for anterior regions were measured from the apex or lateral right ventricular wall. These normal data provide a basis for future echocardiographic studies of the right ventricle.

Full text

PDF
39

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Berger H. J., Matthay R. A., Loke J., Marshall R. C., Gottschalk A., Zaret B. L. Assessment of cardiac performance with quantitative radionuclide angiocardiography: right ventricular ejection fraction with reference to findings in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Am J Cardiol. 1978 May 1;41(5):897–905. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(78)90731-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bommer W., Weinert L., Neumann A., Neef J., Mason D. T., DeMaria A. Determination of right atrial and right ventricular size by two-dimensional echocardiography. Circulation. 1979 Jul;60(1):91–100. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.60.1.91. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cohen M., Fuster V. What do we gain from the analysis of right ventricular function? J Am Coll Cardiol. 1984 Apr;3(4):1082–1084. doi: 10.1016/s0735-1097(84)80369-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Foale R., Stefanini L., Rickards A., Somerville J. Left and right ventricular morphology in complex congenital heart disease defined by two dimensional echocardiography. Am J Cardiol. 1982 Jan;49(1):93–99. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(82)90282-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Lange L. W., Sahn D. J., Allen H. D., Goldberg S. J. Subxiphoid cross-sectional echocardiography in infants and children with congenital heart disease. Circulation. 1979 Mar;59(3):513–524. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.59.3.513. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Manno B. V., Iskandrian A. S., Hakki A. H. Right ventricular function: methodologic and clinical considerations in noninvasive scintigraphic assessment. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1984 Apr;3(4):1072–1081. doi: 10.1016/s0735-1097(84)80368-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Panidis I. P., Ren J. F., Kotler M. N., Mintz G., Iskandrian A., Ross J., Kane S. Two-dimensional echocardiographic estimation of right ventricular ejection fraction in patients with coronary artery disease. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1983 Nov;2(5):911–918. doi: 10.1016/s0735-1097(83)80239-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Schnittger I., Gordon E. P., Fitzgerald P. J., Popp R. L. Standardized intracardiac measurements of two-dimensional echocardiography. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1983 Nov;2(5):934–938. doi: 10.1016/s0735-1097(83)80242-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Starling M. R., Crawford M. H., Sorensen S. G., O'Rourke R. A. A new two-dimensional echocardiographic technique for evaluating right ventricular size and performance in patients with obstructive lung disease. Circulation. 1982 Sep;66(3):612–620. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.66.3.612. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Tajik A. J., Seward J. B., Hagler D. J., Mair D. D., Lie J. T. Two-dimensional real-time ultrasonic imaging of the heart and great vessels. Technique, image orientation, structure identification, and validation. Mayo Clin Proc. 1978 May;53(5):271–303. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Watanabe T., Katsume H., Matsukubo H., Furukawa K., Ijichi H. Estimation of right ventricular volume with two dimensional echocardiography. Am J Cardiol. 1982 Jun;49(8):1946–1953. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(82)90214-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Heart Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES