About this Research Topic
The right heart plays a pivotal role in different clinical settings, such as heart failure, valvular heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, congenital heart disease, and cardiomyopathies. After being neglected for decades, the evaluation of the right heart has gained increasing interest among scientific researchers due to the amount of evidence highlighting its importance for prognosis and therapeutic management. In fact although not being the primary affected chamber in many pathologic conditions, its involvement is a marker of disease severity and transition to poor prognosis. Furthermore, in the last few years, the right heart has become the target of interventional procedures, particularly in the electrophysiology and cath lab.
Even though there is growing evidence on the importance of the right heart on a multidisciplinary basis, many clinicians still regard it as a collateral structure while evaluating patients, focusing their attention and efforts on the assessment and treatment of left heart impairment. Probably this is due to the fact that, until now, most of the cardiovascular disease classification, quantification of severity, and educational material has been focused on the left heart. This is also reflected in diagnostic evaluation, with most cardiac imaging techniques developed and optimized for the left ventricle, and therapeutic strategies, since treatment of the right heart e.g. tricuspid valve has been often considered "futile". Therefore, a collection of original research, state-of-the-art or guidance papers, and clinical cases may increase awareness of the importance of these cardiac structures.
This Research Topic welcomes original articles, review papers, and case reports regarding the right heart as a whole or as single anatomic structures, its evaluation, and management. In order to provide the most complete and multidisciplinary overview of the topic, the scope is to collect papers regarding different sub-specialties, starting from research material on right heart anatomy, its clinical and imaging evaluation, the diagnosis of its involvement in cardiac and non-cardiac diseases, new therapeutic strategies including medical and interventional treatment. Importantly, the authors should focus on the main target of providing useful information for clinical practice, enhancing the contents of their articles with simple take-home messages and practical information for readers.
Even though there is growing evidence on the importance of the right heart on a multidisciplinary basis, many clinicians still regard it as a collateral structure while evaluating patients, focusing their attention and efforts on the assessment and treatment of left heart impairment. Probably this is due to the fact that, until now, most of the cardiovascular disease classification, quantification of severity, and educational material has been focused on the left heart. This is also reflected in diagnostic evaluation, with most cardiac imaging techniques developed and optimized for the left ventricle, and therapeutic strategies, since treatment of the right heart e.g. tricuspid valve has been often considered "futile". Therefore, a collection of original research, state-of-the-art or guidance papers, and clinical cases may increase awareness of the importance of these cardiac structures.
This Research Topic welcomes original articles, review papers, and case reports regarding the right heart as a whole or as single anatomic structures, its evaluation, and management. In order to provide the most complete and multidisciplinary overview of the topic, the scope is to collect papers regarding different sub-specialties, starting from research material on right heart anatomy, its clinical and imaging evaluation, the diagnosis of its involvement in cardiac and non-cardiac diseases, new therapeutic strategies including medical and interventional treatment. Importantly, the authors should focus on the main target of providing useful information for clinical practice, enhancing the contents of their articles with simple take-home messages and practical information for readers.
Keywords: right ventricle, right atrium, diagnosis, prognosis, failure
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
