What is left parasternal heave?

What is left parasternal heave?

Left parasternal heave is a systolic elevation of left costal cartilages due to contraction of a hypertrophied right ventricle. In the early nineteen sixties, a device was available to record the precordial impulse – both apical and parasternal and the recording was called impulse cardiogram [1]. Different types of impulse cardiograms were demonstrated in different conditions like mitral regurgitation and mitral stenosis with pulmonary hypertension. The findings were at that time correlated with cardiac catheterization as imaging modalities like echocardiography was not available at that time. Conditions with severe right ventricular hypertrophy would produce a sustained left parasternal heave demonstrable by the impulse cardiogram.

Reference

  1. Gillam PM, Deliyannis AA, Mounsey JP. The Left Parasternal Impulse. Br Heart J. 1964 Nov;26:726-36.