Reduced Right Ventricular Systolic Function in Constrictive Pericarditis Indicates Myocardial Involvement and Persistent Right Ventricular Dysfunction and Symptoms After Pericardiectomy

We report four cases of patients with documented constrictive pericarditis who had evidence of reduced right ventricular (RV) systolic function. Assessment of RV systolic function was performed by pulsed tissue Doppler sampling of basal RV free wall velocity at the level of the tricuspid annulus in the four-chamber view. Velocity values and time velocity integral calculated from the velocity envelope were compared with values from controls. All four patients had evidence of epicardial RV injury at the time of pericardiectomy and persistent symptoms and RV systolic dysfunction after pericardiectomy.