Ultrasound Assessment of Pulmonary Artery Stiffness in Pulmonary Hypertension due to Left Heart Disease (PH-LHD)

Background: Diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in patients with left heart disease (LHD) is commonly late in the disease, as right heart catheterization is not routinely performed in LHD patients due to its inherent adverse effects. As such, noninvasive techniques to detect and monitor PH-LHD are an unmet clinical need. Recently, pulmonary artery (PA) stiffening has emerged as a diagnostic and prognostic parameter in PH. Using a translational bench-to-bedside approach based on noninvasive echocardiography, we aimed to develop a non-invasive stiffness index to estimate PA stiffness as a diagnostic parameter in PH due to LHD.