DOPPLER-ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY DURING PREGNANCY - PHYSIOLOGICAL AND ABNORMAL FINDINGS

Despite continuous improvements in diagnostic cardiology techniques, e chocardiography remains the cornerstone for noninvasive cardiovascular assessment of the pregnant woman with heart disease or suspected card iac abnormality. Reversible physiological cardiac remodeling of pregna ncy associated with changes in valve patency or transvalvular flow pat tern, can be suitably assessed by the complementary use of quantitativ e pulsed- and continuous Doppler and qualitative color Doppler technol ogy. These techniques are also useful for a better understanding of th e pathophysiology of the hemodynamic consequences of fixed valve steno sis during pregnancy with respect to the labile nature of gradients re sulting from variable loading conditions as occurs during pregnancy. R ecent and specific areas of clinical use including cardiac output esti mation, contrast echocardiography minimizing radioscopy during cardiac catheterization and transesophageal echocardiography for selection of patients with mitral stenosis suitable for percutaneous catheter valv otomy illustrate the large spectrum of capabilities of this versatile method during pregnancy.