Objective: The methods of cardioechoscopy and heart catheterization are commonly used for diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic efficacy of impedance cardiography as safe, non-invasive, and cheap method for detection of pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Material and methods: Pulmonary artery systolic pressure was measured by impedance cardiography method in 109 patients: 41 patients with cardiovascular pathology when pulmonary arterial hypertension was determined by cardioechoscopy; 33 patients with cardiovascular pathology when using cardioechoscopy pulmonary arterial hypertension was not observed; 20 patients with pulmonary pathology when pulmonary arterial hypertension was determined by cardioechoscopy; 15 patients with pulmonary pathology when using cardioechoscopy pulmonary arterial hypertension was not observed. Cardioechoscopy results were compared with the results of impedance cardiography.
Results: We found a strong correlation between the data obtained by cardioechoscopy and impedance cardiography methods (r = 0.836, p = 0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference in the distributions of cardioechoscopy and impedance cardiography data (p = 0.915), and statistically significant difference was observed between the data of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and patients with normal pulmonary artery systolic pressure (p = 0.0001).
Conclusions: After determining the correlation between cardioechoscopy and impedance cardiography methods (r = 0.836, p = 0.0001), computerized impedance cardiography should be considered as an informative method for diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension.