Assessment of prosthetic mitral valve pressure gradients by means of ultrasound Doppler technique and on-line spectral analysis.
The blood speed through prosthetic mitral valves was determined using ultrasound Doppler techniques combined with on-line spectral analysis. Spectral analysis was particularly suitable for maximum velocity estimation due to its superior ability in discriminating between Doppler signals and white background noise. From a simplified Bernoulli equation the corresponding transprosthetic pressure drop was calculated and estimates were compared against pressure gradients obtained by conventional intracardiac catheterization. A close relationship between the ultrasonic- and the manometric transprosthetic pressure gradients was found, but the ultrasonic method tended to systematically underestimate the pressure gradients slightly.
D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D006083:Graft Occlusion, Vascular / Q000175:diagnosis; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D008365:Manometry; D008943:Mitral Valve; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D014463:Ultrasonography