Impairment of right ventricular strain evaluated by cardiovascular magnetic resonance feature tracking in patients with interstitial lung disease

Objectives The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between pulmonary hypertension (PH) and right ventricular (RV) strain, and to evaluate the prognostic value of RV strain by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) feature tracking for patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD). Methods A total of seventy ILD patients (mean age: 71 ± 8 years, 39 [56%] males) who underwent CMR and right heart catheterization (RHC) were studied. Using a 1.5T magnetic resonance (MR) scanner, steady-state free precession cine MR images encompassing the RV were acquired in all patients and 20 control subjects. RV longitudinal strain were calculated with a feature tracking algorithm. PH was defined as a mean pulmonary artery pressure of more than 20 mmHg at rest and a pulmonary vascular resistance ≥3 Woods unit. Results The RV longitudinal strain was significantly impaired in the ILD patients with PH (n=18) than ILD patients without PH (n=52) (−13.3 ± 5.4% vs. −16.9±5.4%, p=0.048). The RV longitudinal strain differed significantly between the ILD patients without PH and the controls (n=20) (−16.9 ± 5.4% vs. −20.8 ± 6.2%, p=0.002). Five of 70 (7%) patients died within one-year after CMR scan. Area under receiver operating characteristics curve for predicting death was 0.900 (95%CI: 0.800 to 1.000) for RV strain, 0.643 (95%CI: 0.454 to 0.832) for RVEF. Conclusions Presence of PH was associated with impairment of RV strain, and RV strain could predict short-term mortality in patients with ILD. RV strain by feature tracking might be useful as a non-invasive prognostic marker for patients with ILD.