Evaluation of right atrial function using right atrial speckle tracking analysis in patients with pulmonary artery hypertension

In patients with pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH), right ventricular pressure overload eventually causes right heart failure (RHF), leading to a poor prognosis. Right atrial (RA) overload and RA dysfunction occur in patients with PAH-complicated RHF. We evaluated RA function using right atrial longitudinal strain (RALS) by two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) and investigated the association between RALS and the severity of RHF in patients with pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) noninvasively. We performed 2D-STE in 56 PAH patients and 20 normal control subjects. The peak global RALS and peak global RA longitudinal strain rate (RALSR) were analyzed by 2D-STE. Simultaneous right heart catheterization was performed to determine the right atrial pressure (RAP) and cardiac index (CI). Peak global RALS (34.6 +/- A 14.1 vs. 58.3 +/- A 9.9 %, p < 0.0001) and peak global RALSR (2.5 +/- A 1.3 vs. 3.1 +/- A 1.2 s(-1), p < 0.0001) were significantly lower in PAH patients compared with normal controls. There was a significant negative correlation between peak global RALS and RAP (r = -0.8037, p < 0.0001). There was a significant positive correlation between peak global RALS and CI (r = 0.8179, p < 0.0001). Peak global RALSR was also correlated with RAP (r = -0.7308, p < 0.0001) and CI (r = 0.7596, p < 0.0001). RALS and RALSR by 2D-STE were useful for noninvasive evaluation of RA dysfunction and the severity of RHF in patients with PAH.