Procedures
pulmonary artery systolic pressure
Administrative details of the study are described in the Fig. For the echocardiographic assessments, the same model of echocardiogram machine was utilized at the baseline and the end of the study for each patient; all data were obtained according to the standard operating procedure and sent to the core laboratory where all analyses were performed by the independent sonographers in a blinded manner. Ventricular dimensions were measured from either 2-D dimensional or M-mode images, according to the American Society of Echocardiography conventions. Left atrial volume and LVEF were determined by the biplane modified Simpson method. Relative wall thickness and LV mass index were calculated using the following formulae:The estimated pulmonary artery systolic pressure was calculated by the sum of the transtricuspid gradient and the estimated right atrial pressureLV end-systolic and diastolic elastance were calculated using previously reported formulae