Electrocardiographic signs of right ventricular overload in patients who underwent pulmonary embolism event(s). Are they useful in diagnosis of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension?

Diagnosis of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) remains a major clinical problem. An attempt was made to learn whether electrocardiography has the potential to alleviate that problem. Sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive value as well as a likelihood ratio of electrocardiogram (ECG) signs of right ventricular overload (RVO) were determined in 56 patients with chronic pulmonary embolism and a mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) ranging from 15 to 80 mm Hg.

[Electrocardiographic signs of right ventricular overload useful in improving diagnosis of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTE-PH) in patients with chronic exertional dyspnea].

The early recognition of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTE-PH) is troublesome because of "honey moon" period with chronic dyspnea on exertion as the only one symptom. To find if routine electrocardiography may be useful in improving the diagnosis, value of right ventricular overload (RVO) signs in recognition echocardiographically determined chronic pulmonary hypertension (CPH) and angiographically confirmed CTE-PH in 90 consecutive patients hospitalized due to chronic exertional dyspnea was studied. CPE was found in 76.