Functional evaluation of mitral valve prosthesis by Doppler blood velocimetry.

arious techniques have been utilized for the asVsessment of mitral valve prosthesis function in man. Of the external methods, phonocardiography, fluoroscopy, and echocardiography have been most frequently employed. Routine cardiac catheterization, including pressure measurement and left ventriculography, supplies important data but does not directly estimate blood flow through the d c i a l valve. We describe here the initial observations on the use of Doppler catheter-tip velocimetryl as a method for the direct measurement of phasic, instantaneous blood-flow velocity through such prosthetic devices in conscious man. Figure 1 demonstrates simultaneously recorded lead 2 of the electrocardiogram, rnitral-area phonocardiogram, right atrial pressure, apexcardiogram,