Right Ventricular Geometric Shortening in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Follow-Up in Survivors & Non-Survivors

J. Tim Marcus¹, Gert Jan Mauritz², T. Kind², Marielle van De Veerdonk², Nico Westerhof², Anton Vonk-Noordegraaf²

The changes of right ventricular (RV) geometric shortening in surviving (n=26) and non-surviving (n=16) Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) patients were studied. RV longitudinal shortening, transverse shortening and RV fractional area change (RVFAC) were measured on 4-chamber cardiac MRI cine images. These values remained the same in the survivors, but transverse shortening and RVFAC decreased further in the non-survivors at 1 year follow-up (p<0.05). This decrease in RVFAC was associated with loss of RV ejection fraction (p=0.005). Thus, non-surviving PAH patients are characterized by a continued decline in RV transverse shortening and in RVFAC, while RV longitudinal shortening remains the same.