Clinical Utility of Echocardiography for the Diagnosis and Management of Pulmonary Vascular Disease in Young Children With Chronic Lung Disease

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to determine the clinical utility of Doppler echocardiography in predicting the presence and severity of pulmonary hypertension in patients with chronic lung disease who subsequently underwent cardiac catheterization. METHODS: A retrospective review of data for all patients or = 0.67) correctly in only 47% of those studies. Seven (58%) of 12 children without estimated systolic pulmonary artery pressure demonstrated pulmonary hypertension during subsequent cardiac catheterization. In the absence of estimated systolic pulmonary artery pressure, qualitative echocardiographic findings, either alone or in combination, had worse predictive value for the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension. CONCLUSION: As used in clinical practice, echocardiography often identifies pulmonary hypertension in young children with chronic lung disease; however, estimates of systolic pulmonary artery pressure were not obtained consistently and were not reliable for determining the severity of pulmonary hypertension.