Ultrasound criteria of the diuretic therapy effectiveness in chronic heart failure

Evaluating the effectiveness of diuretic therapy in the small circle of blood circulation is difficult for clinicians, as distinct from that in the large circle, where it can be assessed by dynamics of peripheral edema and liver size. The aim of the study is to develop non-invasive diagnostics of venous pulmonary hypertension in order to determine the effectiveness of diuretic therapy. In addition to the standard protocol of transthoracic echocardiography, we have investigated the minimum and the maximum pulmonary vein diameter in 30 chronic heart failure patients with III functional class (NYHA) before and after 4 months of standart treatment for chronic heart failure with individual selection of torasemid. All patients received a written consent to participate in the study. After four months of therapy, a significant improvement of the following echocardiographic parameters was revealed (р