Objective: The purpose of the present study aimed to evaluate the left ventricular systolic function and diastolic filling characteristics in pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE).
Methods: A total of 102 patients with PTE, including acute or acute on chronic PTE, were consecutively recruited from January of 2006 to December of 2010. The patients [53 males and 49 females; age (64 ± 14) years, range 23 - 85 years] all underwent Doppler echocardiographic assessment before thrombolytic therapy or within 24 h of hospital admission to the emergency intensive care unit of Beijing Anzhen hospital. Fifty-one age- and gender-matched healthy controls [29 males and 22 females; age (61 ± 9) years, range 31-79 years] were recruited from the Health Center. One hundred and sixty age- and gender-matched coronary artery disease (CAD) patients [90 males and 70 females, age (61 ± 11) years, range 29 - 81 years] with positive coronary artery angiography were also included as controls during the period of January of 2009 through December of 2010. Trans-thoracic Doppler echocardiography was used to assess the trans-mitral filling pattern and left ventricular systolic function in all the subjects. The trans-mitral blood flow peak of early (E) wave less than that of the auricular (A) wave, or the ratio of E/A greater than 2, were defined as abnormal left ventricular diastolic filling. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) greater than 50% was defined as preserved systolic function. The prevalence of abnormal left ventricular diastolic filling and systolic dysfunction were compared with Chi-square test between the PTE patients and the 2 control groups.
Results: Tricuspid regurgitation was identified in 72.5% (74/102) of the 102 PTE patients, abnormal left ventricular diastolic filling was detected in 77.5% (79/102) of the PTE patients, and 95.1% (97/102) of the PTE patients had preserved left ventricular systolic function with LVEF of > 50%. Further analysis revealed that the abnormal left ventricular diastolic filling was more frequent in PTE patients with CAD and/or hypertension than in other PTE patients (χ(2) = 5.280, P < 0.05), 85.2% (52/61) and 65.9% (27/41), respectively. Overall, the prevalence of abnormal left ventricular diastolic filling in PTE patients (77.5%, 79/102) was significantly higher than that in healthy controls (25.5%, 13/51, χ(2) = 38.300, P < 0.001), and the fraction of left ventricular systolic dysfunction was significantly lower (4.9%, 5/102) than that in CAD patients (29.4%, 47/160, χ(2) = 23.450, P < 0.001). In the PTE patients with neither CAD nor hypertension, the abnormal left ventricular diastolic filling was still more frequent (65.9%, 27/41) than in healthy controls (25.5%, 13/51, χ(2) = 15.070, P < 0.001), but there was no significant difference when compared with that in CAD patients (73.8%, 118/160, χ(2) = 1.013, P > 0.05).
Conclusions: The results strongly suggest that abnormal left ventricular diastolic filling constitutes a common and a major form of left ventricular dysfunction in PTE patients. It indicates that enhanced alertness to and early identification of abnormal left ventricular diastolic filling may play an important role in improving prognosis for PTE.