- Poster presentation
- Open Access
- Published:
The pulmonary blood volume variation is higher in patients with heart failure compared to healthy controls
Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance volume 16, Article number: P288 (2014)
Background
In left ventricular heart failure, blood will congest backwards to the pulmonary circulation and result in an increased pulmonary vascular resistance. If the increase in pressure result in impaired gas exchange due to pulmonary oedema, the pulmonary blood will redistribute to better ventilated areas in order to maintain adequate gas exchange[1]. This might affect the pulsatility of the pulmonary blood flow which can be quantified by measuring the pulmonary blood volume variation (PBVV)[2]. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate if PBVV in patients with heart failure differed from healthy controls.
Methods
: Fifteen patients with heart failure and 10 healthy volunteers underwent cardiac MRI at 1.5T. Flow measurements were acquired in the pulmonary trunk and all pulmonary veins. The PBVV was calculated by integrating the flow in all vessels leading to and from the pulmonary circulation. The PBVV was indexed to right ventricular stroke volume (PBVV/SV). Patients underwent a 6-minute walk test (6MWT) as an independent measure of functional capacity.
Results
Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with heart failure and healthy controls were 27 ± 6 and 60 ± 3%, respectively (p < 0.001). Patients had a significantly higher PBVV/SV compared to controls (58 ± 12% vs 40 ± 5%, p < 0.001, Figure 1), 3/15 (20%) patients had PBVV/SV values within the range of healthy controls. In patients, there was no relationship between PBVV/SV and the LVEF (r2 = 0.13, p = 0.18), atrioventricular plane displacement (AVPD, r2 = 0.17, p = 0.12), or 6-minutes walk test (6MWT, n = 8, r2 = 0.00, p = 0.90).
Conclusions
Patients with heart failure had a higher PBVV/SV compared to healthy controls. This can be explained by a pulmonary circulatory response, either active or passive, to the failing left ventricle. However, the lack of correlation between PBVV/SV and LVEF, AVPD, or 6MWT suggests an active process in order to maintain an adequate gas exchange in the lungs. Therefore, we propose that PBVV/SV may be a measure of the pulmonary circulatory involvement caused by heart failure.
Funding
Swedish Research Council, Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation, Medical Faculty at Lund University, Region of Scania.
References
de G, Lee J: Regulation of the pulmonary circulation. Br Heart J. 1971, 33 (Suppl): 15-26. 10.1136/hrt.33.Suppl.15.
Ugander M, et al: Pulmonary Blood Volume Variation Decreases after Myocardial Infarction in Pigs: A Quantitative and Noninvasive MR Imaging Measure of Heart Failure. Radiology. 2010, 256 (2): 415-23. 10.1148/radiol.10090292.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
About this article
Cite this article
Kanski, M., Ugander, M., Borgquist, R. et al. The pulmonary blood volume variation is higher in patients with heart failure compared to healthy controls. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson 16 (Suppl 1), P288 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/1532-429X-16-S1-P288
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1532-429X-16-S1-P288
Keywords
- Heart Failure
- Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction
- Walk Test
- Pulmonary Circulation
- Pulmonary Blood Flow