Consecutive epidemiological study of right ventricular dysfunction at a reference hospital

Abstract

Background and purpose: Right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) has been described as an independent factor for morbidity and/ or mortality in various nosological entities. However, there are no data on its true prevalence in hospital environments. The present study aims to discover the prevalence of this pathology at a specialized hospital center, as well as the characteristics of the patients affected. Methods and results: An observational and prospective study analyzing 7636 echocardiographs performed consecutively over a 20-month period. An etiological classification into four categories (cardiac cause, pulmonary thromboembolism, pneumopathy and idiopathic pulmonary hypertension) was proposed. 442 RVD cases were detected and classified, which is 5.78% of the examinations performed. Most of the cases (87.56%) presented prior cardiopathy as the origin of RVD. Only 12.44% presented a non-cardiac cause for RVD. Differences were detected in the demographic and echocardiographic characteristics of patients, depending on the etiology of the RVD. Conclusions: With a prevalence of 5.78% of all the echocardiographs performed in a specialized hospital, the significance of RVD is confirmed. The most frequent etiological factor for this disease is the existence of prior heart disease.