Additional prognostic value of echocardiographic follow-up in pulmonary hypertension - role of 3D right ventricular area strain

International audienceBackground : Outcomes in pulmonary hypertension (PH) are related to right ventricular (RV) function and remodeling. We hypothesized that changes in RV function and especially area strain (AS) could provide incremental prognostic information compared to the use of baseline data only. We therefore aimed to assess RV function changes between baseline and 6-month follow-up and evaluate their prognostic value for PH patients using 3D echocardiography.Methods: 95 PH patients underwent a prospective longitudinal study including ESC/ERS guidelines prognostic assessment and 3D RV echocardiographic imaging at baseline and 6-month follow-up. Semiautomatic software tracked the RV along the cycle and its output was postprocessed to extract 3D deformation patterns.Results: Over a median follow-up of 24.8 [22.1-25.7] months, 21 patients died from PH or were transplanted. Improvements in RV global AS were associated with stable or improving clinical condition as well as survival free from transplant (p