The measuring the jet with at its origin in the assessment of the mitral prosthetic regurgitation. Influence of the spatial disposition

Introduction and objectives. The study was performed to test the influence of the jet spatial disposition on the correlation degree between the measur ement of the jet width at its origin and the severiry of mitral prosthetic regurgitation by transesophageal Doppler color flow imaging. Material and methods. In 165 patients with mitral valve prosthesis which we re submitted for transesophageal echocardiography examination due to suspec ted prosthetic dysfunction, we studied 126 with pathological mitral regurgi tation. On these patients, studies of jet spatial disposition, maximun widt h in its origin and severity quantification by means of maximun regurgitati on area were performed. Results. For the free jet group of patients (90), jet width at its origin c orrelated with maximal regurgitation area (r = 0.75); whereas for the wall jet group (36), the correlation degree was 0.59. We observed a relationship (p < 0.05) between severe mitral regurgitation a ssessed by maximal regurgitant jet size and jet width greater than or equal to 5 mm in both groups: the sensitivity and specificity of 72.7% and 95% r espectively for free jets, and 70.7% and 64.4% for wall jets. Conclusions. The correlation between the area measurement and the width in its origin is better for free jets than for wall jets. A statiscally signif icant relationship between the presence of severe mitral regurgitation and width in its origin greater than or equal to 5 mm could be observed, indepe ndently of the jet spatial disposition.