New developments in imaging methods to assess right ventricular function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Accurate assessment of right ventricular function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is essential for the clinical diagnosis and treatment. Given the complex right ventricular geometry, the traditional imaging modalities are difficult to precisely evaluating its function. With recent development in the echocardiographic tissue doppler imaging (TDI) and strain rate imaging (SRI), optimization in the temporal resolution of multislice CT and contrast medium injection scheme, the advancement of CMRI cine phase-contrast, as well as all kinds of new radionuclide techniques, it makes a breakthrough in evaluation of cardiac morphology and function. The imaging technology become much objective, accurate, quantitative in evaluation of right ventricular function in COPD patients. (authors)