[The reliability of several polycardiographic indices in the quantitative evaluation of mitral stenosis (author's...

In 21 patients with pure, isolated mitral stenosis, four hemodynamic parameters were studied. They were obtained by left and right cardiac catheterization and were: the mean pulmonary artery wedge pressure, the diastolic mitral gradient, the stroke volume and the mitral valve area with one or more parametres amd polycardiographic indices, to verify the reliability of the quantitative evaluation of mitral stenosis by noninvasive methods. The polycardiographic indices of Yigitbasi (r = 0.76) and Wells (r = 0.65) were best correlated with the mean pulmonary wedge pressure. The only index with a moderate correlation (r = 0.60) with the mitral diastolic gradient was that of Wells. The LVET/PEP index has only a mediocre correlation with the stroke volume (r = 0.50). The Oreshkov index was the only one among those studies to correlate at all significantly with the mitral valve area (r = --0.62). The investigation confirms the practical use of noninvasive methods in predicting the pulmonary wedge pressure, whilst the indices of Wells and Oreshkov seem less satisfactory in prediction both for the mitral diastolic gradient and the mitral valve area.