Blood pressure changes during routine transthoracic echocardiography

Background: Increased afterload affects many of the flow dependent metrics assessed during transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) especially in the evaluation valvular disease. A single timepoint blood pressure (BP) may not accurately reflect the afterload present at the time of flow-dependent imaging and quantification. We assessed the magnitude of change in BP at discrete timepoints during routine TTE. Method: We conducted a prospective study where participants underwent automated BP measurement while undergoing a clinically indicated TTE. The first reading was obtained right after the patient lay supine and subsequent readings were taken at 10-min intervals during image acquisition. Result: We included 50 participants (66% were male, with a mean age of 64 years). After 10 min, 40 (80%) participants had a drop in systolic BP of >10 mmHg. Compared to the baseline, there was a significant drop in systolic BP (mean decrease 20.0 ± 12.8 mmHg; P