Insights into RC time curve fit analysis of pulmonary artery pressure decay

The notion of a constant relationship between resistance and capacitance (RC time) in the pulmonary circulation has been challenged by more recent research. The RC time can be obtained using either a simplified empirical approach or a semilogarithmic equation. Although direct curve-fit analysis is a feasible and ostensibly reference approach for RC analysis, it remains largely unexplored. We aimed to study the relationship between various RC methods in different states of pulmonary hemodynamics.

Methods In total, 182 patients underwent clinically indicated right heart catheterization. The pressure curves were exported and processed using the MATLAB software. We calculated the RC time using the empirical method (RC_EST), semilogarithmic approach (RC_SL), and direct measurement of curve fit (RC_FIT).

Results Among 182 patients, 137 had pulmonary hypertension due to left heart disease (PH-LHD), 35 had pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and 10 demonstrated normal hemodynamics (non-PH). RC_EST consistently overestimated the RC_FIT and RC_SL measurements by a mean of 75%. With all three methods, the RC values were longer in the PAH (RC_FIT = 0.36 ± 0.14 s) than in the PH-LHD (0.27 ± 0.1 s) and non-PH (0.27 ± 0.09 s) groups (p < 0.001). Although the RC_SL and RC_FIT values were similar among the three subgroups, they exhibited broad limits of agreement. Finally, the RC_EST demonstrated a strong discriminatory ability (AUC = 0.86, p < 0.001, CI = 0.79–0.93) in identifying PAH.