Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography : official publication of the American Society of Echocardiography
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J Am Soc Echocardiogr · Sep 2007
Real-time 3-dimensional color Doppler flow of mitral and tricuspid regurgitation: feasibility and initial quantitative comparison with 2-dimensional methods.
Visualization of valvular regurgitation using 3-dimensional (3D) echocardiography has been attempted but not routinely performed to date because of technical limitations. With the recent development of a fully sampled matrix-array probe, real-time color flow imaging allows display and analysis of regurgitant jets. Accordingly, the aim of this study was 2-fold. We: (1) investigated the feasibility of transthoracic, real-time visualization of 3D color flow jets; and (2) compared conventional 2-dimensional (2D) Doppler/color flow methods of quantitation (ie, 2D jet/left atrial [LA] area, flow convergence, and vena contracta [VC]) to 3D-derived measurements (3D jet/LA volume, flow convergence, and VC). ⋯ Three-dimensional echocardiography of color flow Doppler of MR and TR jets was feasible. Quantitative methods using 3D echocardiography such as MR and TR volumes correlated well with 2D flow convergence methods. TR VC has more of an elliptic shape, whereas MR is more circular or oval when visualized in 3D. Regurgitant/atrial volume ratios provide a new method of assessing the severity of regurgitant lesions; however, 3D volume-derived ratios were comparatively smaller than those measured with 2D echocardiography.