PLANIMETRIC QUANTIFICATION OF STENOTIC AO RTIC VALVES WITH MULTIPLANETEE

Standard techniques used in order to quantify the severity of aortic v alve stenoses in clinical practice comprise: transthoracic echocardiog raphy, namely, by determining maximum and mean transvalvular gradients and evaluating aortic valve areas, as well as invasive techniques whi ch quantify aortic valve areas through hemodynamic pressure measuremen ts and application of the Gorlin formula. Since the introduction of th e multiplane TEE technique, it has become feasible to scan the aortic valve in a strictly horizontal plane and quantify the aortic valve ori fice by planimetry. In this study, we investigated 23 patients with va rious degrees of aortic valve stenoses. We compared aortic valve areas , which had been planimetrically determined by multiplane TEE sr-ans, and mean aortic valve gradients (standard TTE technique) with pressure gradients and valve areas derived from hemodynamic measurements obtai ned during cardiac catheterization, and have found that the valve area s as well as the mean pressure gradients correlate well.