Estimation of left ventricular diastolic pressures from precordial pulsed-Doppler analysis of pulmonary venous and mitral flow

Abstract Because analysis of pulmonary venous flow (PVF) will be extensively used in comprehensive Doppler assessment of left ventricular diastolic function, this study was designed to (1) evaluate the feasibility of PVF measurement in 116 consecutive patients with various cardiac abnormalities by using precordial pulsed Doppler echocardiography; (2) Estimate mean pulmonary capillary pressure (MPCP) and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) from Doppler variables of PVF and mitral inflow; and (3) evaluate the influence of clinical and hemodynamic variables on PVF Doppler patterns. We adequately recorded anterograde PVF in 96 (82.7%) patients and retrograde PVF in 45 (38.7%) patients. The strongest correlation between MPCP and Doppler variables of PVF was found with systolic fraction (the systolic velocity time integral expressed as a fraction of total anterograde PVF) ( r = −0.88; p r = 0.72; p