Assessment of left ventricular diastolic pressure in the emergency room and intensive care unit: a new Doppler index

Assessment of left ventricular diastolic pressure (LVDP) by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) contributes to the diagnosis of dyspnea in the emergency room and ICU. Classical parameters are derived from mitral blood flow recorded using pulsed Doppler (maximal velocity of early and late mitral wave: E and A), mitral annulus movement using Doppler tissue imaging (early lateral mitral annulus movement: Ea) and early left ventricular inflow propagation velocity (Vp) using M-mode color Doppler. Unfortunately, Doppler tissue imaging and M-mode color Doppler are not always available on echocardiography machines and these measurements are also time-consuming.