Applications of pulsed Doppler flow mapping to left sided cardiac valvular lesions

The flow mapping procedure has been developed in parallel to the standard pulsed Doppler procedure. It has a different purpose--picking up flow signals at the site of lesions rather than calibrating velocities--and has its own methodology, developed within the last six years. On the basis of invasive correlations performed in 267 cases of valvular heart disease, we review the three-fold purpose of the flow mapping technique: diagnosing lesions, relying on the presence of flow anomalies; assessing their severity, relying on the spatial spreading of these flow signals; and identifying the site of the lesion, which is a specific advantage, relying on the anatomical location of these flow signals and/or on the direction of the jets. For example, using this technique, it is now possible to easily differentiate a cusp tear from a leak of a bioprosthesis, to measure the size of the leaks, and to reconstruct the image of aortic or mitral stenotic areas. These optimal results are only obtained using an appropriate methodology which mainly includes a) the selection of adequate two-dimensional short axis planes in order to explore the diseased valve in its entirety, because of frequent assymetrical orifices, and to pick up the jets at their starting point, b) measurements of the abnormal areas, c) when jets are studied, a three dimensional approach is required in order to cope with the three dimensional nature of the jet and to make available the calculation of three dimensional indices of severity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)