Three-dimensional color Doppler for assessing mitral regurgitation during valvuloplasty.
OBJECTIVE
Transesophageal color Doppler (or 2D Doppler) is the most widely used technique for intraoperative assessment of mitral valve repair. However, the most severe mitral regurgitations produce eccentric jet flows which cannot be assessed by 2D imaging. Up to now the indications for surgical intervention and intraoperative decisions after valve repair have been based on 2D Doppler examinations. Aim of this study was to compare conventional 2D Doppler to three-dimensional (3D) Doppler for assessing residual regurgitation in patients after mitral valvuloplasty.


METHODS
Twenty-four patients were referred to surgery for mitral valve repair. They underwent transesophageal echocardiography and 3D data acquisition during mitral valve reconstruction. Conventional assessment of mitral valve regurgitation, measured by color Doppler jet area, was compared to the volume of regurgitant jets obtained by 3D Doppler. Regurgitant volume and fraction were measured by pulsed Doppler and two-dimensional echocardiography. The 3D reconstructions of color Doppler data were accomplished by means of the 'Heidelberg Raytracing Algorithm' developed at our institution.


RESULTS
The jet areas did not show any significant correlation to the regurgitant fraction (r = 45; P = NS) or regurgitant volumes (r = 0.40; P = NS). In contrast the jet volumes correlated significantly to regurgitant fraction (r = 0.71; P < 0.01) and regurgitant volume (r = 0.85; P < 0.01). The reproducibility analysis of repeated jet volume and jet area measurements also showed that the parameter jet volume has a lower variability and higher agreement of repeated measurements than jet area.


CONCLUSIONS
Three-dimensional color Doppler flow imaging revealed the complex geometry of eccentric regurgitant jets and showed that the assessment of mitral regurgitation, based on conventional 2D Doppler, can be misleading. This new technique has a great potential for becoming a reference method for assessing mitral valve repair.
De Simone
R
R
Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Heidelberg, Germany. r.de.simone@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
Glombitza
G
G
Vahl
C F
CF
Albers
J
J
Meinzer
H P
HP
Hagl
S
S
D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D018618:Echocardiography, Doppler, Color; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008944:Mitral Valve Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results