Transesophageal echocardiographic spectrum of calcific mitral abnormalities in patients with end-stage renal disease

This report provides a morphological description of atypical and unusual mi tral and submitral calcifications in patients with end-stage renal disease. The use of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) with enhanced image qual ity and resolution has made possible a detailed evaluation of the distribut ion and echocardiographic morphology of mitral calcification in end-stage r enal disease. To our knowledge, there has been no such prior report with TE E. Our TEE observations reveal that in addition to the common well known po sterior mitral annulus calcification, the following varieties of calcificat ion also exist: basal calcification of both mitral leaflets with sparing of free edges, calcification in the intervalvular fibrosa region, and small c alcific excrescences at the bases of both mitral leaflets. These abnormalit ies have previously received little or no attention.