Quantitative Assessment of Pulmonary Insufficiency by Doppler Echocardiography in Patients with Adult Congenital Heart Disease

We determined the utility of continuous wave (CW) Doppler for quantification of pulmonary insufficiency (PI) confirmed by pulmonary angiography in patients with postoperative adult congenital heart disease. A total of 41 patients with PI were divided into two groups on the basis of PI severity by pulmonary angiography: group A (n = 27) with severe PI and group B (n = 14) with mild or moderate PI. Nine patients in group A had pulmonic valve replacement and reverted to mild PI after surgery. Their pre- and postoperative data were compared. All underwent a two-dimensional/Doppler study with interrogation of the PI jet for jet width by color Doppler and peak flow velocity, deceleration time (DT), pressure half-time (PHT), diastolic period (DP), and PI flow time (FT) by CW Doppler. The no-flow time (NFT), NFT/FT ratio, and NFT/DP fraction were calculated. Group A had a larger right ventricle (4.1 ± 0.9 vs. 3.5 ± 0.6 cm, P = .033), higher PI peak velocity (2.1 ± 0.5 vs. 1.7 ± 0.5 m/s, P = .04), shorter DT (261 ± 61 vs. 317 ± 83 ms, P = .018) and PHT (76 ± 29 vs. 132 ± 53, P < .0001), longer NFT (146 ± 66 vs. 40 ± 42 ms, P < .0001), and higher ratios of NFT/FT (46% ± 27% vs. 13% ± 14%, P < .0001) and NFT/DP (29% ± 13% vs. 10% ± 9%, P < .0001). The PHT and DT lengthened, and the NFT shortened in patients who underwent pulmonic valve replacement (all P < .05). By binary logistic regression, NFT and PHT were the best predictors for severe PI. An NFT of 80 ms had 84% sensitivity and 93% specificity, and a PHT of 100 ms had 93% sensitivity and 93% specificity for identifying angiographically severe PI. CW Doppler accurately distinguishes severe from lesser degrees of PI in patients with postoperative adult congenital heart disease.