Acute mitral valve regurgitation created in sheep using echocardiographic guidance.

Background And Aim Of Study: This study was designed to determine: (i) Whether acute mitral valve regurgitation (MVR) due to chordal rupture can be reproducibly created under echocardiographic guidance; (ii) what degree of MVR can be created; (iii) what degree of acute regurgitation is survivable; and (iv) whether acute MVR due to chordal rupture progresses over time.

Methods: In a pilot group of six juvenile farm-bred sheep, selected chordae tendineae were ruptured using either a biopsy needle or endoscopic scissors under echocardiographic guidance, without need for cardiopulmonary bypass. Sheep were sacrificed acutely (n = 2), and at six weeks (n = 2) or eight weeks (n = 2).

Physical examination in valvular aortic stenosis: correlation with stenosis severity and prediction of clinical outcome.

Background And Methods: The goal of this study was to examine the ability of physical examination to predict valvular aortic stenosis severity and clinical outcome in 123 initially asymptomatic subjects (mean age 63 +/- 16 years, 70% men) followed up for a mean of 2.5 +/- 1.4 years.

Prospective study of asymptomatic valvular aortic stenosis. Clinical, echocardiographic, and exercise predictors of outcome.

Background: Only limited data on the rate of hemodynamic progression and predictors of outcome in asymptomatic patients with valvular aortic stenosis (AS) are available.

Methods And Results: In 123 adults (mean age, 63 +/- 16 years) with asymptomatic AS, annual clinical, echocardiographic, and exercise data were obtained prospectively (mean follow-up of 2.5 +/- 1.

Inverted left atrial appendage mimicking a left atrial mass during mitral valve repair.

This case report describes the appearance of a new homogenous mass seen in the left atrium on intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography after mitral valve repair. This "mass" was the inverted left atrial appendage. Echocardiographers need to recognize normal variants, such as an inverted left atrial appendage, to avoid misdiagnosis.

Flow dependence of measures of aortic stenosis severity during exercise.

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the effect of altering transvalvular volume flow rate on indexes of aortic stenosis severity (valve area, valve resistance, percent left ventricular stroke work loss) derived by using Doppler echocardiography.

Background: Assessment of hemodynamic severity in aortic stenosis has been limited by the absence of an index that is independent of transvalvular flow rate. The traditional measurement of valve area by the Gorlin equation has been shown to vary with alterations in transvalvular flow.

Physiologic changes with maximal exercise in asymptomatic valvular aortic stenosis assessed by Doppler echocardiography.

Objectives: We hypothesized that the physiologic response to exercise in valvular aortic stenosis could be measured by Doppler echocardiography.

Background: Data on exercise hemodynamics in patients with aortic stenosis are limited, yet Doppler echocardiography provides accurate, noninvasive measures of stenosis severity.

Methods: In 28 asymptomatic subjects with aortic stenosis maximal treadmill exercise testing was performed with Doppler recordings of left ventricular outflow tract and aortic jet velocities immediately before and after exercise.

Subclavian artery stenosis masquerading as prosthetic aortic stenosis: a potential source of confusion in Doppler evaluation of aortic valve disease.

In this case report we describe a patient with a prosthetic aortic valve in whom a high-velocity signal from a right subclavian artery stenosis initially was mistaken for the aortic jet signal. Differences in the shapes of the jets obtained from an apical and right supraclavicular position suggested different origins of these two high-velocity systolic signals. Correct identification of the origin of each signal was possible with pulsed Doppler recordings of the subclavian artery and high pulse-repetition-frequency pulsed Doppler interrogation of the aortic valve.