Usefulness of Tissue Doppler Imaging to Evaluate Pulmonary Capillary Wedge Pressure During Exercise in Patients With Reduced Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction

The early diastolic transmitral velocity/tissue Doppler imaging mitral annular early diastolic velocity (E/e′) ratio is used to estimate left ventricular (LV) filling pressures at rest. However, there are only limited data that validate its use during exercise. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to test the ability of E/e′ to estimate pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) during symptom-limited exercise in patients with LV systolic dysfunction. Forty patients with severe LV dysfunction and heart failure symptoms (54 ± 12 years, 28 men) underwent simultaneous Doppler assessment of E/e′ and right-sided cardiac catheterization at rest and during a symptom-limited exercise test, at steady state levels of 30%, 60%, and 90% of their maximal exercise capacity. During exercise, all 40 patients successfully completed stage 1, yielding 40 pairs of data for comparison. Eighteen patients also successfully completed stage 2, and 5 patients also made it through stage 3, yielding 23 additional data pairs. In total, there were thus 63 pairs of data available during exercise. With exercise, heart rate increased from 77 ± 14 to 112 ± 21 beats/min. Septal E/e′ at rest correlated well with PCWP at rest (r = 0.75, p <0.01). PCWP at rest also correlated with resting mitral deceleration time (r = 0.32, p <0.01) and with the transmitral E/A ratio (r = 0.74, p <0.01). During exercise, the correlation between septal E/e′ and PCWP was weaker (r = 0.57, p <0.01) and was shifted to the right. This rightward shift was observed in patients with both separated or merged E and A velocities. In conclusion, in patients with severe LV dysfunction, although E/e′ allows accurate estimation of PCWP at rest, it appears less reliable for estimating LV filing pressure during exercise.