Right heart failure echocardiography

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1];Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Jad Z Al Danaf; Rim Halaby

Transthoracic echocardiography plays a key role in the diagnosis of right heart failure by showing signs of right ventricular hypertrophy, tricuspid regurgitation and pulmonary hypertension.

Transthoracic echocardiography plays a key role in the diagnosis of right heart failure and of the most common findings are:

• Right ventricular hypertrophy (>15mm thick at end diastole in adults)
• Right ventricle systolic dysfunction and wall motion abnormalities
• Tricuspid regurgitation
• Pulmonary hypertension
• Congenital heart diseases findings (ASD should be suspected when there is RV dilatation with RBBB on EKG. A TEE is a better modality to rule it out than TTE)
• Dilated inferior vena cava. ^[1][2]

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