Background: Echocardiography combining Doppler and two-dimensional data is recommended for quantitative assessments of valvular regurgitation. We applied a new method to calculate the mitral annulus (MA) area in combination with multiple sample sites. Individuals without regurgitation in whom the valvular and left ventricular stroke volumes (SV) should be identical were investigated in order to evaluate the feasibility in quantitative assessments of valvular regurgitation.
Methods and results: Twenty subjects were included. Flow velocity was registered with pulsed Doppler in different positions in the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) and in the MA. The MA area was assumed to be either circular, using the diameter from a four-chamber projection, or elliptic, using the major diameter from a parasternal short axis and a minor diameter from an apical long axis. Left ventricular (LV) SV was measured from LV volumes using the biplane method. The overall difference between LVOT SV and mitral SV using one centrally located measurement and elliptic MA was 3.2+/-15.6 ml (P=0.38), 0.9+/-15.7 ml between LVOT SV and LV SV (P=0.80) and -2.2+/-15.2 ml between mitral SV and LV SV (P=0.54). The corresponding standard deviation of the differences as a percentage of the mean value was 24%, 25% and 23%. A circular shaped MA overestimated the mitral SV compared with LVOT SV (P=0.009) and LV SV (P=0.004). Increasing the number of sample sites in the LVOT or MA did not further improve the results.
Conclusion: Doppler and two-dimensional echocardiography can be used to quantify regurgitation in groups of patients. In individual patients the wide distribution of differences between valves and LV SV implies that the method should be used in conjunction with other Doppler echocardiographic parameters.