On mitral valve dynamics and its connection to early diastolic flow
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 28, 2026
Echocardiographic Approaches and Protocols for Comprehensive Phenotypic Characterization of Valvular Heart Disease in Mice
Published on: February 14, 2017
Arash Kheradvar1, Morteza Gharib
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA. arashkh@engr.sc.edu
Insights
Vortex formation time, a new index for diastolic function, accurately assesses left heart performance. This non-dimensional measure correlates with key diastolic parameters, improving diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Cardiovascular Physiology
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Current methods for detecting diastolic dysfunction are inadequate, lacking a comprehensive diagnostic index.
- Existing echocardiography indexes offer limited views of diastolic function, failing to represent global left heart performance.
- The complexity of cardiac motion necessitates a reliable diastolic performance measure that correlates with multiple cardiac function aspects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between ventricular early pressure drop, trans-mitral thrust, and mitral annulus recoil using vortex formation time.
- To establish vortex formation time as a potential global index for assessing diastolic ventricular function.
- To address limitations in interpreting Doppler mitral inflow patterns for distinguishing normal from pseudonormal flow.
Main Methods:
- Investigated correlations between vortex formation time, trans-mitral thrust, minimal ventricular pressure, and isovolumic relaxation time constant.
- Analyzed the influence of waveform shape and pressure drop time constant on trans-mitral thrust maximization.
- Utilized non-dimensional vortex formation time as a key metric.
Main Results:
- Vortex formation time showed independent correlation with trans-mitral thrust, minimal ventricular pressure, and pressure drop time constant.
- Trans-mitral thrust was maximized within a non-dimensional vortex formation time range of 4 to 5.5.
- These findings held true irrespective of waveform shape or pressure drop time constant values.
Conclusions:
- Vortex formation time, a non-dimensional measure of E-wave duration, serves as a valuable index for assessing diastolic ventricular function.
- This index offers a more comprehensive evaluation of diastolic performance compared to isolated echocardiographic measures.
- The study provides a novel approach to overcome challenges in diastolic function assessment and interpretation of mitral inflow patterns.
Abstract:
In the field of cardiology, the current ability to accurately detect diastolic dysfunction is unsatisfactory due to the lack of an effective diagnostic index. Isolated indexes obtained from echocardiography are all restricted to a certain aspect of ventricular diastolic function only, and individually cannot be regarded as a global representative for the left heart diastolic function. Due to complexity of cardiac motion, a reliable measure for diastolic performance should be a parameter that independently correlates with several aspects of cardiac function. The presence of trans-mitral vortex ring and its influence on dynamics of the mitral valve is a topic that has been recently received more attention in cardiovascular research. One obvious reason for this attention is to find better solutions to overcome our inability in interpretation of Doppler mitral inflow patterns for distinguishing a normal trans-mitral flow from a pseudonormal pattern. In the present study, we investigated the relationship among the ventricular early pressure drop, trans-mitral thrust as a force generated during diastolic filling and mitral annulus recoil through the index of vortex formation time. As a result, we found that vortex formation time is independently correlated to trans-mitral thrust, minimal ventricular pressure and pressure drop time-constant of isovolumic relaxation phase. Results also showed that trans-mitral thrust is maximized when the non-dimensional vortex formation time is in the range of 4 and 5.5 regardless of the shape of the waveform or the value of the pressure drop time-constant. In conclusion, this study confirms that vortex formation time, a non-dimensional measure for duration of E-wave, can be used as an index to assess diastolic ventricular function.
Related Concept Videos
01:27Mitral Valve Prolapse I: Introduction
01:20Mitral Regurgitation I: Introduction
01:22Mitral Stenosis I: Introduction
01:23Mitral Stenosis II: Clinical features and Diagnostic Tests
01:23Mitral Regurgitation II: Clinical Features and Diagnostic Tests
01:16Heart Valves
The AV valves prevent the backflow of blood from the ventricles to the atria during ventricular contraction. These valves function with the assistance of the chordae tendineae and papillary muscles. When the ventricles are relaxed, the chordae tendineae are slack, allowing blood to flow from the atria into the...