DOPPLER-DERIVED GRADIENTS IN NORMALLY FUNCTIONING MONOSTRUT BJORK-SHILEY PROSTHESES

Doppler echocardiography is an established technique for the routine a ssessment of prosthetic heart valve function; its accuracy in the esti mation of pressure valve gradients has been demonstrated in comparativ e studies with invasive data.(1,2) Ultrasound examination therefore is an important aid in the clinical follow-up of these patients. Neverth eless, the variability of normal values for transprosthetic Doppler gr adients is relatively wide, depending basically on the model and size of the value.(3,4) For this reason, the availability of reference valu es for different valve sizes of a particular model is necessary for a correct assessment of the prosthetic function in every patient. This s tudy reports the normal range of Doppler gradients in a large series o f patients with clinically normal-functioning Monostrut Bjork-Shiley v alves(5) (Shiley, Inc., Irvine, California) in the aortic or mitral po sition, obtained either postoperatively or over a long-term follow-up.