Constrictive Pericarditis Echo Criteria
Applies the echocardiographic criteria for constrictive pericarditis.
Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Ventricular septal shift that moves with respiration
- Yes
- Medial or septal annular early diastolic velocity, criterion at 9 or more
- 11 cm/s
- Lateral annular early diastolic velocity
- 9 cm/s
Result: criteria are met
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What the result means
- Shift plus one
- The septal shift with either the annular velocity or the hepatic vein ratio was 87 percent sensitive and 91 percent specific.
- All three
- All three together were 64 percent sensitive and 97 percent specific. The stricter reading buys specificity and gives up sensitivity.
- No septal shift
- The criteria are not met. The respiration-related septal shift is the anchor and neither of the other findings counts without it.
- Medial e' 9 or more
- A velocity that reads as normal or better in most settings is the criterion here, because the septal annulus is preserved while the lateral wall is tethered.
- Medial above lateral
- The reverse of the normal relationship between the two annuli, and the reversal is itself the finding.
- Hepatic vein 0.79 or more
- Expiratory diastolic reversal velocity divided by the diastolic forward velocity.
- Filling pressure
- Where these criteria are met, early filling velocity over annular velocity does not estimate filling pressure; it varies inversely with it.
What you enter
- Ventricular septal shift that moves with respiration, required for either combination
- Medial or septal annular early diastolic velocity, criterion at 9 or more
- Lateral annular early diastolic velocity, not a criterion but shows the reversed relationship
- Hepatic vein expiratory diastolic reversal ratio, criterion at 0.79 or more
- Hepatic vein expiratory diastolic reversal velocity, used with the forward velocity to make the ratio
- Hepatic vein diastolic forward velocity, used with the reversal velocity to make the ratio
How this is calculated
Welch TD, Ling LH, Espinosa RE, et al. Echocardiographic diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis: Mayo Clinic criteria. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2014;7(3):526-534. Read the source ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.