ABSTRACT
Purpose The mean pulmonary artery (MPAP) has been widely used as an important parameter to diagnose and evaluate pulmonary hypertension (PH).The purpose of this paper is to compare the efficacy of two methods in evaluating PH,including estimating pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) using Doppler ultrasonography to measure tricuspid regurgitation (TR) velocity,and directly using the peak velocity of TR.Materiasl and Methods From January 2012 to June 2013,eighty patients with left-to-right shunt congenital heart diseases (CHD) planned for closure procedure in Tangdu Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University and the General Hospital of Shenyang Military region were included in this prospective study,who underwent right heart catheterization to measure pulmonary artery pressure,and underwent Doppler ultrasonography to measure the peak velocity ofTR.Results Using catheter-measured MPAP of≥ 25 mmHg as diagnostic reference,the false positive rate was 62.96％,and the false negative rate 0％ when the estimated PASP of ＞30 mmHg determined by TR method was used to diagnose PH.There was high diagnostic agreement when peak velocity of TR was used to diagnose PH.When 320 cm/s and 340 crn/s were used as diagnostic cutoff values,false positive rates were 14.81％ and 7.41％,and false negative rates were 15.91％ and 20.45％,respectively.Conclusion In patients with left-to-right shunt CHD,peak velocity of TR measured on echocardiography can be used to diagnose PH which overcomes the high false positive rate in estimation method.It is more suitable to diagnose PH when the MPAP is used as the diagnostic criterion.