Pulsed and Continuous Wave Doppler for Evaluation of Mitral and Aortic St. Jude Prosthetic Valves

Abstract

Clinical assessment of intracardiac blood flow patterns is possible with noninvasive ultrasonic methods based on the Doppler principle (1). When this technique is combined with conventional two-dimensional echocardiography discrete regions of the heart such as valve inlet or outlet can be examined for flow disturbances resulting from valve stenosis or regurgitation. Many investigators have demonstrated the utility of these techniques in the qualitative and quantitative investigation of valvular heart disease and cardiac shunts (2). Nevertheless, Doppler methods have not been widely employed for the evaluation of patients with prosthetic heart valves (3). Therefore, we have analyzed the Doppler frequency shift spectra resulting from transprosthetic valve flow in nine relatively asymptomatic patients with implanted St. Jude Medical valves. We elected to evaluate this prosthesis because, at present, it is undergoing extensive investigation in the United States before approval for clinical use and appears to have definite hemodynamic advantages over other currently available valvular prostheses.