Echo Physiology And Hemodynamics PDF Download

Very little is known about heart function or pulmonary hemodynamics in newborn infants in either health or disease states. Animal experiments have shown that the immediate period following birth is characterized by an increase in pulmonary blood flow, a decrease in pulmonary vascular resistance and closure of fetal shunts. The specific timing and rate of these events in human neonates are not well documented. The adaptation of an immature heart during this phase of physiological â pulmonary hypertensionâ has also not been studied. Persistent pulmonary hypertension of newborn (PPHN), a frequent outcome of dysregulation of postnatal adaptation, is associated with significant mortality and morbidity, however, the role of cardiac dysfunction is not well known. Clinical appraisal of cardiac performance is difficult in neonates. Two dimensional echocardiography, the only routinely feasible investigation, has undergone significant technological advancements, making it suitable to study human neonatal cardiac physiology. In the studies reported herein, I demonstrated the feasibility and utility of employing quantitative echocardiography measures for studying cardiopulmonary physiology during the immediate postnatal period, in both health and diseased states. I prospectively established a comprehensive set of normative values for various echocardiographic indices of biventricular cardiac function and pulmonary hemodynamics during the first two days of life and described their relative measurement reliability. Subsequently, for the first time, I provided time-sensitive, quantitative, physiological circulatory data regarding immediate postnatal transition in humans, starting from.