Patients enlisted for bilateral lung transplantation (LUTX) have subclinical right ventricle (RV) dysfunction1, which is usually clinically silent until LUTX. During LUTX, several reasons (i.e., sequential pulmonary arteries cross-clamp, hypoxia, hypercapnia) lead to de-compensation of RV function, cardiac failure and shock2. In this clinical scenario, extracorporeal life support (ECLS) with cardiopulmonary bypass (CBP) or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is emergently implemented. ECLS is associated with prolonged mechanical ventilation, primary graft dysfunction (PGD), bleeding, and graft rejection3. This may be due to: 1) the activation of pro-inflammatory cascade due to blood-circuit contact; 2) the increased need for allogenic blood components, which per se has been associated to an increased risk of PGD4. Avoiding intraoperative ECLS may thus have significant positive clinical outcomes. In the general cohort of patients undergoing LUTX, pulmonary hypertension, and right ventricular dysfunction have been identified as risk factors for intraoperative ECLS5. At enlistment for LUTX, patients undergo a comprehensive evaluation of right cardiac function comprising: transthoracic echocardiography, pulmonary artery catheterization, and calculation of RV ejection fraction (RVEF) by multiple gated radionuclide ventriculography. Echocardiography is non-invasive, can be performed repeatedly and at the bedside. The free-wall RV longitudinal strain (RVLS) is a novel echocardiographic method for quantification of myocardial deformation6 with high diagnostic accuracy to predict depressed RV ejection fraction. RVLS may be used for non-invasive, repeated and bedside assessment of RV function before LUTX. We envision the employment of RVLS to document subclinical RV dysfunction before LUTX.
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free-wall RV longitudinal strain
Timeframe: free-wall RV longitudinal strain will be assessed at the moment of enlistment for lung transplant. Exact time obviously cannot be predicted (given that time from enlistment to transplant may vary widely), but usually is 6 months prior to surgery.