[Color Doppler echocardiography and radionuclide ventriculography in aortic and mitral valve insufficiency]

In 99 stable patients with auscultatory findings of aortic (n = 52) or mitral regurgitation (n = 47), the regurgitant fraction was determined by radionuclide ventriculography (RNV). In addition, color-coded Doppler echocardiography (CDE) was performed to assess semi-quantitatively the severity of valve incompetence. In aortic regurgitation, the results of both methods concurred in 73% of cases. With CDE, the regurgitation was underestimated in 10% by one class and overestimated in 17% by one class. In mitral regurgitation the results concurred only in 60% of the patients. CDE seemed to overestimate the incompetence, by one class, in 19% and to underestimate the lesion in 21% of the patients. In 2/47 patients the difference was more than one class. In conclusion, both noninvasive methods are applicable to assess the severity of mitral and aortic regurgitation. The RNV appears superior in follow-up assessment because of a slightly better reproducibility and investigator-independence.