%0 Journal Article %A Sophie Billet %A Grégory Pugnet %A Thomas Chollet %A Gaétan Charbonnier %A Pauline Fournier %A Grégoire Prévot %A Laurent Tetu %A Maxime Cournot %A Hélène Derumeaux %A Didier Carrié %A Michel Galinier %A Olivier Lairez %T The Use of Transthoracic Echocardiogram to Quantify Pulmonary Vascular Resistance in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis %D 2019 %R 10.3899/jrheum.180571 %J The Journal of Rheumatology %P 1495-1501 %V 46 %N 11 %X Objective. To explore the accuracy of tricuspid regurgitation velocity (TRV) to right ventricular outflow tract time-velocity integral (TVIRVOT) ratio by Doppler to determine pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc).Methods. Thirty-five consecutive adult patients with SSc, fulfilling the 2013 European League Against Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology classification criteria, with sinus rhythm referred for right heart catheterization (RHC), were retrospectively included. All patients underwent a transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) performed within 24 h of RHC. Patients with SSc were recruited regardless of disease activity, cardiac symptoms, and treatment regimen. Doppler measurements were compared to RHC measurements. A linear regression equation was generated to predict PVR by echocardiogram based on the TRV/TVIRVOT ratio. The accuracy of Doppler measurements for predicting PVR > 3 Wood units was assessed by computing the areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curves.Results. There were 20 (57%) females in the study. The mean age was 65 ± 12 years. Mean and systolic pulmonary arterial pressures were 31 ± 8 and 53 ± 15 mmHg, respectively. There was a good correlation between TRV/TVIRVOT ratio assessed by Doppler and PVR measured by RHC (R = 0.743, p < 0.001). The equation generated by this analysis was the following: PVR by Doppler = 11.3 × (TRV/TVIRVOT) + 1.7. A cutoff value of 0.21 for TRV/TVIRVOT ratio provided the best sensitivity (86%) and specificity (86%) to determine PVR > 3 Wood units.Conclusion. Our study suggests that TTE using Doppler could be a useful and noninvasive tool for estimating PVR in patients with SSc. %U https://www.jrheum.org/content/jrheum/46/11/1495.full.pdf