Clinical reevaluation of the echocardiographic value in diagnosing the arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy

Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of echocardiography in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) by summarizing and comparing the electrophysiological and the imaging features.Methods The echocardiography and MRI were performed in the 65 cases of ARVC to measure the right ventricle and the free wall,noted as TTE-RV,MRI-RV and TTE-RVFW.The velocity of tricuspid valve regurgitation (TRmax) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were measured.The three-dimensional electric anatomical model of right ventricular was get by the Carto system,and the right ventricular area (Area-RV),the scar area (Area-Scar) was calculated.Results Twenty-seven cases (41.5 ％) was confirmed by the echocardiography,21 cases (32.3 ％) was suspiciously diagnosed,14 cases (32.3％) was miss diagnosed,and 3 cases (4.6％) was misdiagnosed.Statistically significant difference could be detected among the echocardiography confirmed groups and the other two groups for the parameters TTE-RV,MRI-RV,Area-RV,Area-Scar,and TTE-RVFW (P ＜ 0.05).Also there was a statistically significant difference of the parameters of Area-RV and Area-Scar between the suspiciously and miss diagnosed groups (P ＜0.05).Different echocardiographic findings was found in ARVC with different stages,but myocardial fibrosis and low voltage scar could be detected in all patients on the MRI imaging and and electrophysiological mapping.Conclusions The diagnosis of typical ARVC can be confirmed by echocardiography,but for the patients with early and middle stages,comprehensive evaluation should be refered to the clinical data. Key words: Echocardiography;  Cardiomyopathy;  Ventricular function, right;  Magnetic resonance imaging