Echocardiography Shows Heart Recovery with VAD

The problem for doctors is how to determine when the heart has recovered enough to remove the device. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC, PA, USA) are evaluating the use of automated border detection echocardiography for this purpose.

This modality employs ultrasound imaging along with quantitative information about the size of the left ventricle during contraction and relaxation. After information about arterial blood pressure is added, a computer calculates the heart's strength as a "power value.” Patients are selected for weaning when tests yield specific values indicating the heart is showing signs of recovery.

"Quantitative echocardiography is noninvasive and can be done on an outpatient basis or even at bedside,” said Don Severyn, M.S., senior biomedical engineer at the Medical Center's Artificial Heart Program. In another study, six of 18 patients who underwent echocardiography showed signs of heart recovery and were subsequently weaned off the VAD devices.




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