Understanding right ventricular dyssynchrony: Its myriad determinants and clinical relevance.

In this issue of I Experimental Physiology i , Ewalts et al. (2021) report that the degree of RV intraventricular dyssynchrony is related to an interaction between RV preload (volume) and afterload (PA pressure). Keywords: dyssynchrony; loading; right ventricle EN dyssynchrony loading right ventricle 797 800 4 04/02/21 20210401 NES 210401 It is a well-worn cliché that the right ventricle (RV) is forgotten or neglected, yet it is already the subject of a huge scientific literature. The RV preload was estimated using the echocardiographic surrogate marker of end-diastolic area on an apical four-chamber image, meaning that changes in RV shape and global volumes and function were not explicitly measured. It is clear that pulmonary arterial (PA) pressure and RV function are major predictors of morbidity and mortality in many cardiovascular diseases, but improving RV function as a therapeutic target remains elusive. [Extracted from the article]