Right Ventricular Dysfunction on Transthoracic Echocardiography and Long-Term Mortality in the Critically Unwell: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

RVD, irrespective of cause, is associated with increased long term mortality in the critically ill. Future studies should be aimed at understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms by which this occurs. Commonly used echocardiographic definitions of RVD show significant heterogeneity across studies, which contributes to uncertainty within this dataset.