The clinical significance of combined heart lung ultrasound on severe left heart failure with pulmonary hypertension / 中华医学超声杂志（电子版）

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of combined heart and lung ultrasound in patients with severe left heart failure and pulmonary hypertension. Methods From March 2016 to June 2017, 75 patients with grade Ⅲ and Ⅳ heart failure and dyspnea were enrolled in Qingdao Municipal Hospital Affiliated to Qingdao University. Thirty-three patients had normal pulmonary artery pressure (normal pulmonary arterial pressure group), 25 patients had mild pulmonary hypertension (mild pulmonary hypertension group), and 17 patients had moderate to severe pulmonary hypertension (moderate to severe pulmonary hypertension group). The patient′s plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) was measured. Left ventricular diameter (LVD), right ventricular diameter (RVD), and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were measured by echocardiography. The patient′s lungs were observed by lung ultrasonography, and its number was recorded. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare the differences of LVD, RVD, and LVEF in three groups of patients with severe left heart failure. Further comparison between groups was performed using LSD-t test. Kruskal-wallis H test was used to compare the plasma BNP concentration and B-line number in three groups of patients with severe left heart failure. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to further compare the groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of pulmonary hypertension diagnosed by plasma BNP concentration and B line number in patients with severe left heart failure were drwan. Results The concentrations of BNP in patients with normal pulmonary arterial pressure, mild pulmonary hypertension, and moderate to severe pulmonary hypertension were 890 (614, 1516), 1460 (1245, 1950), and 2660 (1670, 3279) ng/L, respectively. The number of B line was 12 (9, 16), 17 (14, 18), 26 (20, 28), and the RVD was (22.1±1.7), (24.9±2.0), (26.3±2.8) mm, respectively. The number of B-line and RVD in the moderate-severe pulmonary hypertension group were both lager than those in the mild pulmonary hypertension group, and the number of B-line and RVD in the mild pulmonary hypertension group were both lager than those in the normal pulmonary artery pressure group. There was significant difference between any two groups (BNP concentration: U=210.500, P < 0.05; U=47.000, 73.000, both P < 0.001;B line number:U=189.000,P < 0.05;U=38.5000,64.000,both P < 0.001;RVD:t=0.553, 0.623, both P<0.001; t=0.656, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in LVD and LVEF between the three groups of patients. The ROC curve showed that the optimal threshold for the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension in patients with severe left heart failure with BNP concentration was 1225 ng/L. The sensitivity was 85.7%,the specificity was 69.7%,the area under the curve was 0.814,and the 95% CI was 0.717 to 0.911. The optimal threshold for diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension in patients with severe left heart failure was B line number 14, the sensitivity was 88.1%, specificity was 66.7%, the area under the curve was 0.836, and 95%CI was 0.747 to 0.925.Conclusion Patients with severe left heart failure at different pulmonary artery pressure levels have different B-line findings, and the number of B-line increases with the severity of pulmonary hypertension, which warrants further study and application.