Determination of right ventricular wall stress in mitral regurgitation using computer-based model

To assess the influence of work load on both LV and RV performance in chronic severe mitral regurgitation (MR), our model for estimating LV wall stress was extended to include the RV modeled as a bi-axially truncated prolate ellipsoid. Pressure and echocardiographic chamber dimensions were entered into the model. Estimated RV circumferential(cir), meridional(mer) and radial(rad) stress in MR were 124/spl plusmn/13, 97/spl plusmn/13 and 16/spl plusmn/2, and LV cir, mer and rad stress estimates were 300/spl plusmn/31, 123/spl plusmn/14 and 68/spl plusmn/5 (/spl times/10/sup 3/ Dynes/cm/sup 2/), respectively. The RV-cir and rad and LV-cir, mer and rad stresses were significantly higher than control (p<.05). These preliminary results indicate that RV wall stress estimation appears feasible and may provide important pathophysiologic understanding of processes affecting both RV and LV performance.