Value of clinical applications of differential pressure and relative pressure imaging in the left ventricle

Abstract

Regional pressure differences between sites within the left ventricular cavity have long been identified, and the potential clinical value of diastolic and systolic intraventricular pressure differences (IVPDs) is of increasing interest. This study concluded that the IVPD plays an important role in ventricular filling and emptying and is a reliable indicator of ventricular relaxation, elastic recoil, diastolic pumping, and effective left ventricular filling. Relative pressure imaging, as a novel and potentially clinically applicable measure of left IVPDs, enables early and more comprehensive identification of the temporal and spatial characteristics of IVPD. In the future, as research related to relative pressure imaging continues, this measurement method has the possibility to become more refined and serve as an additional clinical aid that can replace the gold standard cardiac catheterization technique for the diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction.

Keywords: Cardiac imaging techniques; Echocardiography; Ventricular dysfunction; Left ventricle; Cardiovascular physiological phenomena; Hemodynamics; Ventricular pressure

Core Tip: Cardiac catheterization is currently the gold standard for assessing ventricular diastolic function, but it is invasive. There has been a need for a non-invasive alternative to cardiac catheterization. In the course of cardiac research, the phenomenon of local intraventricular pressure differences has been explored, and researchers have continued to develop imaging techniques. Particular advancements have been made in magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound techniques. Relative pressure imaging has been developed based on ultrasound blood flow vector imaging, is able to measure intraventricular pressure differences visually and non-invasively, and has significant advantages over magnetic resonance imaging and color M-mode Doppler ultrasound.