Accurate quantitation of mitral regurgitation offers a major clinical dilemma. The clinical clues depend largely on cardiac auscultation, the accuracy of which needs to be rigorously tested (1). Mitral regurgitation may not be associated with a clinically audible systolic murmur, and the auscultatory features of severity of regurgitation are generally based on increased volume of diastolic flow...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the pattern of incomplete tricuspid valve closure and the presence of tricuspid regurgitation and to identify factors that determine the severity of regurgitation associated with this pattern. BACKGROUND The incomplete tricuspid valve closure pattern (defined as apical displacement of the leaflets) has been described ...

The surgical management of functional tricuspid regurgitation is controversial. Functional tricuspid regurgitation is common in patients with aortic and mitral valve disease, particularly in the presence of pulmonary hypertension. The high incidence and reversibility of functional tricuspid regurgitation are due to the unique compliance of the thin right ventricular wall: modest increases in ri...

We compared contrast angiography with three techniques of quantitating valvular regurgitation from radionuclide ventriculograms in 70 patients: 45 with documented regurgitation graded 1-4+, and 25 without regurgitation. The radionuclide "regurgitant index" (ratio of L to R ventricular stroke counts) was measured from fixed end-diastolic regions of interest (method A), from separate end-diastoli...

OBJECTIVES This study was performed to examine the effect of dobutamine stress echocardiography on mitral regurgitation and to test the hypothesis that mitral regurgitation will increase in patients with an ischemic response. BACKGROUND New or worsening mitral regurgitation during stress testing has been proposed as a marker of ischemia. However, it is unclear whether ischemia induced by dobu...

An echocardiographic study of left ventricular diameter was made in 27 patients with aortic regurgitation. Comparison was made with a group of 21 normal subjects and a group of 6 patients with large left ventricles without valvar regurgitation. Total stroke volume, total left ventricular output, and ejection fraction were derived by the method of cubing the left ventricular diameter to give app...

To test the hypothesis that the fall in supravalvular aortic diastolic pressure is relative to the severity of the regurgitant flow in aortic regurgitation, 27 patients with isolated aortic regurgitation, 23 patients with combined aortic regurgitation and stenosis, and 15 normal subjects were studied. Diastolic pulse pressure (pressure at the dicrotic notch minus pressure at end diastole) and t...

Two hundred Carpentier-Edwards, Björk-Shiley, and Starr-Edwards prostheses in 173 patients were examined. Sixteen (16%) in the aortic and 24 (25%) in the mitral position were associated with clinical signs of regurgitation. A phased array system (Hewlett-Packard A77020A) with a 2.5 MHz duplex and 1.9 MHz continuous wave transducer was used. Colour flow mapping showed trivial transvalvar regurgi...

Mrs B, a 49-year-old female, was referred to our institution for severe mitral regurgitation. Transthoracic echocardiography showed only a moderate organic mitral regurgitation, but a transient severe reversible functional mitral regurgitation was observed during transoesophageal echocardiography (TEE). Three-dimensional TEE clearly demonstrated the functional nature of the regurgitation with a...

BACKGROUND Echocardiographic screening for rheumatic heart disease (RHD) has the potential to detect subclinical cases for secondary prevention, but is constrained by inadequate human resources in most settings. Training non-expert health workers to perform focused cardiac ultrasound (FoCUS) may enable screening at a population-level. We aimed to evaluate the quality and agreement of FoCUS for ...