Assessment of right ventricular systolic function by echocardiography after surgical repair of congenital heart defects.

Postoperative impairment of right ventricular (RV) systolic function can appear after surgical repair of complex congenital heart defects, such as tetralogy of Fallot; it is caused by chronic volume and/or pressure overload due to pulmonary regurgitation and/or stenosis. RV dysfunction is strongly associated with prognosis in these patients. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is the gold standard for quantification of RV volumes and ejection fraction in patients with congenital heart diseases; however, it is costly and is not widely available. Echocardiography is the imaging modality that is most available and most frequently used to assess RV systolic function. However, RV ejection fraction cannot be measured accurately by standard two-dimensional echocardiography because of its pyramidal shape. Surrogate parameters of RV systolic function are mostly used in routine practice. New techniques of two-dimensional strain and three-dimensional quantification of RV volumes and ejection fraction have been developed in recent years. The aim of this article is to show the pertinence of each variable of RV systolic function measured by echocardiography in patients with repaired congenital heart disease and residual chronic RV overload.