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Distribution of normalized pulmonary transit time per pathology in a population of routine CMR examinations

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Abstract

Pulmonary transit time (PTT), defined as the time taken for a contrast agent bolus to pass from the right ventricle to the left ventricle, is a surrogate for non-invasive assessment of preload. It is used in several imaging modalities: pulmonary angiography, echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). Many recent studies have highlighted the prognostic value of PTT. Therefore, we sought to evaluate PTT in a consecutive cohort of patients undergoing CMR. We retrospectively evaluated PTT normalised for heart rate in 278 patients (66% male, mean age 58 ± 11 years) who underwent CMR between August 2017 and November 2021 with a diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy, infarct, hypertrophy, valvular, myocarditis, other pathology or no pathology (“normal”). Normalised pulmonary transit time (nPTT) was higher in men than in women (8.4 ± 1.3 beats vs 7.5 ± 1.1 beats, p = 0.002) in the “normal” group. nPTT was moderately correlated with left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) (r2 = 0.19; p < 0.001), left ventricular end-systolic volume (LVESV) (r2 = 0.34; p < 0.001) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (r2 = 0.29; p < 0.001). nPTT was significantly higher in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (11.3 ± 5.4 beats; p < 0.001), infarct (9.5 ± 2.9 beats; p < 0.001) or valvular heart disease (9.5 ± 3.1 beats; p = 0.006) than in patients included in the “normal” group (7.9 ± 1.3 beats). The nPTT is an important marker of pathology. Its value depends on sex and type of pathology, but it is not specific for any type of pathology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiology, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Bruxelles, Belgium

    A. Jossart & B. Gerber

  2. UZ Brussel, Bruxelles, Belgium

    L. Houard

  3. Centre Hospitalier de Wallonie Picarde, Tournai, Belgium

    B. Pilet & R. Gilles

  4. Clinique et Permanence d’Onex, Genève, Switzerland

    S. O’Connor

Authors
  1. A. Jossart
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  2. B. Gerber
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  3. L. Houard
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  4. B. Pilet
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  5. S. O’Connor
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  6. R. Gilles
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AJ and RG wrote the main manuscript text and prepared figures. All authors reviewed the manuscript

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Correspondence to A. Jossart.

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Jossart, A., Gerber, B., Houard, L. et al. Distribution of normalized pulmonary transit time per pathology in a population of routine CMR examinations. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 40, 149–156 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-023-02976-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-023-02976-x

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