Accuracy and feasibility of a simplified approach to assess the regurgitant orifice area in patients with mitral regurgitation.

Background: Regurgitant orifice area (ROA) has been proposed as a marker of severity in patients with mitral regurgitation (MR). However, such fundamental quantitative echocardiographic parameter has failed to achieve widespread use, since it is difficult to measure. In the present study, we evaluated the accuracy and feasibility of a simplified method for quantification of ROA in patients with varying grades of MR.

Myocardial global performance index as a predictor of in-hospital cardiac events in patients with first myocardial infarction.

Objective: We sought to assess the ability of a Doppler index of global myocardial performance (MPI), measured at entry, to predict inhospital cardiac events in a series of patients with first acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods: A complete 2-dimensional and Doppler echocardiographic examination was performed within 24 hours of arrival at the coronary care department in 96 patients (81 men and 15 women; mean age 58 +/- 9 years) with first AMI. Patients were divided a posteriori into 2 groups according to their inhospital course: group 1 comprised 75 patients with an uneventful course and group 2 comprised 21 patients with a complicated inhospital course (death, heart failure, arrhythmias, or post-AMI angina).

Painless acute aortic dissection presenting as echocardiographically diagnosed left ventricular outflow tract obstruction.

We present an unusual case of painless acute aortic dissection with an atypical echocardiographic presentation that could be confused with an aortic stenosis. Transesophageal echocardiography excluded the presence of aortic stenosis and disclosed a systolic anterior movement of the mitral valve as the cause of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction. It also revealed a type A aortic dissection.