Doppler ultrasound examination of prosthetic function and ventricular blood flow after mitral valve replacement

Two-dimensional color Doppler echocardiography enables delineation of the spatial and temporal distribution of blood flow in the heart. In this study, the method was applied for investigation of flow dynamics in multiple planes in the region of prosthetic mitral valves for comparison with that of native mitral valves. In 15 healthy subjects there was normal flow toward the transducer, coded in red, in the left ventricle along the posterolateral wall (left ventricular inflow region) and blue-coded flow away from the transducer in the left ventricular outflow region during diastole. In 40 patients with St. Jude mitral valve prosthesis and 17 with bioprosthesis the flow pattern in the left ventricle was reversed. Mitral inflow was directed against the interventricular septum, accordingly, into the left ventricular outflow region while the outflow pattern was displaced posterolaterally into the left ventricular inflow region during diastole. The angle between the aortic valve ring and the mitral annulus was significantly smaller than in the healthy subjects. The angle between the central axis of the mitral prosthesis and the mitral inflow, which was 0 degrees in healthy subjects, was increased by the medial deviation in particular, in those with mechanical St. Jude prostheses. The maximal transprosthetic velocity, measured in 70 patients, and the maximal pressure gradient calculated according to the Bernoulli equation was substantially greater than the values in healthy subjects. In contrast to findings associated with normally-functioning prostheses, in four patients with prosthetic malfunction there was a diastolic peak velocity of more than 2 m/s as well as marked turbulence in the inflow region.