Assessment of mitral regurgitation

T Irvine¹, X K Li², D J Sahn² and A Kenny¹

¹ Cardiothoracic Unit, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
² Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Antoinette Kenny, Cardiothoracic Unit, Freeman Hospital, High Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne NE7 7DN, UK;
antoinette.kenny@ncl.ac.uk

Keywords: mitral regurgitation; transoesophageal echocardiography; transthoracic echocardiography

Abbreviations: EROA, effective regurgitant orifice area; FC, flow convergence; LVOT, left ventricular outflow tract; MR, mitral regurgitation; TOE, transoesophageal echocardiography; TTE, transthoracic echocardiography; VC, vena contracta; VTI, velocity time integral

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most commonly encountered valve lesion in modern clinical practice.¹ The range of pathologies producing regurgitant mitral valve dysfunction is broad (table 1) and the condition may be met in virtually any medical speciality. As echocardiography is the most widely available cardiac imaging modality, it is the technique which is routinely used to assess patients with suspected or known MR. While echo-Doppler is an excellent technique for detecting the presence of MR and defining the underlying pathological cause, assessing and/or quantifying the severity of the leak by echocardiography can at times be difficult. This reflects the fact that regurgitant flow through the mitral valve is a complex and dynamically changing process which may be impossible to characterise fully using a two dimensional imaging modality. Nevertheless, if MR is discovered on an echocardiographic examination it is extremely important to make an assessment of severity as this . . . [Full text of this article]

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