Right Heart in Adults & Pulmonary Hypertension

Right heart adaptation to pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a critical determinant of clinical outcomes, morbidity, and mortality in patients with or at risk for cardiopulmonary disease. The World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension recently redefined PH as a mean pulmonary arterial pressure >20 mm Hg, based on a wealth of epidemiologic evidence underscoring the significant impact of even mildly elevated mean pulmonary artery pressures on major adverse clinical events. The lowered diagnostic threshold for PH has renewed interest in echocardiography and its critical role in early detection and screening, refined hemodynamic evaluation, and longitudinal monitoring. However, the systematic assessment of the right heart remains inconsistent, largely due to the predominant focus on left heart evaluation, limited familiarity with right heart ultrasound techniques, and a paucity of reference data defining normal right heart size and function. A systematic, comprehensive ultrasound-based assessment of the right heart offers valuable diagnostic insights for in screening at-risk populations, PH classification, risk stratification, monitoring therapeutic response, and informing prognostication, thereby improving clinical outcomes. NOTE: This guideline replaces the 2010 ASE Guideline, “Guidelines for the Echocardiographic Assessment of the Right Heart in Adults.”