Normal Reference Values and z Scores of the Pulmonary Artery Acceleration Time in XXXX and Its Importance for the Assessment of Pulmonary Hypertension.

@entity1 @entity120
BACKGROUND: Pulsed-wave Doppler determination of the pulmonary artery acceleration time (PAAT) as a surrogate for pulmonary artery pressure was found to be of clinical value for assessment of @entity120 ( @entity120 ) with studies to date exclusively performed in adults. This study aims to provide representative, normal reference values for PAAT in @entity1 of all ages. Moreover, we validated abnormal PAAT values in 54 @entity1 with @entity120 . METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a prospective echocardiographic study in 756 healthy @entity1 (aged 1 day to 18 years) and in 54 @entity1 with @entity120 . Possible associations of age, body length, body weight, body surface area, and heart rate on PAAT were investigated. The PAAT correlated positively with age (r=0.848), body length (r=0.871), body surface area (r=0.856), and body weight (r=0.825) and negatively with heart rate (r=-0.906). PAAT increased with age (neonates: median: 81 ms, range: 53-104; 18th year of life: median: 151 ms, range: 107-187). Receiver operating characteristic analysis for detecting @entity120 @entity1 using age-specific z scores showed an excellent performance of PAAT (P<0.001; area under the curve, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.97-0.99) with a best cutoff score according to Youden index of -1.565 (sensitivity: 92%, specificity: 96%). PAAT values of @entity120 @entity1 negatively correlated (  =-0.497) with pulmonary vascular resistance. CONCLUSIONS: The PAAT normal reference values and z scores we provide here will be useful to identify @entity1 with a shortened PAAT. Abnormal PAAT values with scores <-2 were predictive of @entity120 .
