Accuracy of echocardiographic estimations of right heart pressures in adult heart transplant recipients.

Background: Accurate assessment of right atrial pressure (RAP) and pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) is critical in the management of heart transplant recipients. The accuracy of echocardiography in estimating these pressures has been debated.

Objective: To assess the correlation and agreement between echocardiographic estimations of right heart pressures with those of respective invasive hemodynamic measurements by right heart catheterization (RHC) in adult heart transplant recipients.

3D echocardiography to evaluate right atrial pressure in acutely decompensated heart failure correlation with invasive hemodynamics.

Objectives: This study examined the utility of 3-dimensional right atrial volume index (3D-RAVi), combined with 2-dimensional echocardiographic (2DE) parameters, for the identification of elevated right atrial pressure (RAP) in patients with heart failure.

Background: Accurate noninvasive determination of RAP is clinically important for the management of patients with heart failure. Although 2DE methods have been used to noninvasively estimate RAP, the accuracy of these parameters has limitations when estimating RAP in an individual patient.

A cost-saving strategy for inpatient management of advanced decompensated heart failure patients: the Cardiomyopathy Unit.

Background: This article analyzes the relative costs and revenues of the Tufts Medical Center Cardiomyopathy Unit (CMU), a recent innovation for grouping and managing advanced decompensated heart failure patients.

Methods And Results: We selected a retrospective sample of all patients with the primary diagnosis of heart failure, primary procedure of pulmonary artery catheterization, and with no other hospitalization procedures, admitted to Tufts Medical Center between 2000 and 2006. Regression models were used to estimate the cost for the intervention group and controls.