Long term survival of patients with raised pulmonary arterial systolic pressure utilizing echocardiography-a five-year prospective study.

Background: Pulmonary arterial systolic pressure (PASP) can be estimated with transthoracic echocardiography. However, the significance of raised PASP on routine echocardiography is uncertain. In this study, we evaluated the mortality and hospitalization rates of subjects with raised PASP in a cohort of patients referred directly by their general practitioners for routine outpatient (open access) echocardiography for further analysis of suspected heart failure.

Arm span to height ratio is related to severity of dyspnea, reduced spirometry volumes, and right heart strain.

Background: Arm span is the closest physiologic measurement to standing height. Increased arm span to standing height ratio, therefore, indicates possible loss of height, which is a feature of aging, often resulting from osteoporosis-related vertebral collapse. We hypothesize that the discrepancy between arm span and height is associated with reduced airflow volumes, severity of dyspnea, and right-sided cardiac structural changes in older individuals with symptoms of dyspnea.