Morphometric features of the right atrioventricular orifice in adult human hearts

The normal data of the tricuspid valve complex is of great clinical importance in the light of progress in cardiosurgery and the development of novel operating techniques. A range of measurements for the right atrioventricular orifice in 96 human adult hearts was examined by means of anatomical dissection, inspection, examination, and statistical analyses. The length of the attachment of the anterior leaflet increased significantly between group I (aged 18-40 years) and group II (aged 41-64 years) in women only. In men there were no significant differences in this parameter between any of the three age groups. In addition, the attachment length of the posterior leaflet in women increased statistically in the second age group. In men, in contrast, the attachment length of the posterior leaflet did not increase significantly between the first and second age groups and became significantly larger only in oldest age group, consisting of men aged over 65. No statistically significant differences between the three age groups were found for the attachment length of the septal leaflet (p>0.05). In female hearts significant increases in the frontal and sagittal dimensions of the tricuspid valve orifice were observed between the second age group and the group aged over 65. In male hearts both the frontal and sagittal dimensions increased significantly with advanced age. The right atrioventricular orifice expressed as the ellipse area was statistically greater than the triangular area (p<0.01) in each age group. It should be noticed that both areas increased significantly during ageing. This study has demonstrated that the shape of the right atrioventricular orifice evolves during life, from a triangular shape to a more elliptical shape.