Assessment of Right Ventricular Structure and Function in Pulmonary Hypertension

Right ventricular function plays an important role in determining cardiac symptoms and exercise capacity in chronic heart failure. It is known that right ventricle has complex anatomy and physiology. The purpose of this review paper is to demonstrate the best assessment of the right ventricle with current echocardiography. Echocardiography can assess sufficiently right ventricular structure and function and also suggest prognosis in pulmonary hypertension patients, especially with the use of modern imaging techniques. Finally, the new imaging modality of real time three dimensional echocardiography is interchangeable to cardiac magnetic resonance in reproducibility and accuracy.