[Pulsed Doppler in the diagnosis of tricuspid insufficiency]

Forty-eight patients underwent M-Mode, 2D and pulsed Doppler echocardiography with systematic apical and subcostal examination of the mitral and tricuspid orifices to determine the value of pulsed Doppler echo in the detection of tricuspid regurgitation. The fourty-eight patients, aged 12 to 69 years, were divided into 2 groups: Group I: 27 patients referred for cardiac catheterisation usually with a view to surgery. The majority of patients had rheumatic valvular, congenital heart disease or cardiomyopathies. All of these patients had phonocardiography, right and left heart catheterisation, right ventricular angiography and measurement od cardiac output. Group II: 21 control patients with no auscultatory, radiological or electrocardiographic changes. This group was studied to determine the specificity of pulsed Doppler examination of the tricuspid valve and the patients only underwent echocardiography. Selective right ventricular angiography was selected as the reference. The sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of pulsed Doppler echocardiography in the positive diagnosis of tricuspid regurgitation were determined. Its value in quantifying tricuspid regurgitation was also analysed. The sensitivity of pulsed Doppler was 93 p. 100 in this series: all but one case of angiographically proven tricuspid regurgitation were detected by the finding of unequivocal systolic turbulence in the right atrium. The specificity of pulsed Doppler was 91 p. 100. The positive predictive value of systolic turbulence in the right atrium was 81 p. 100. The only reliable criteria for quantifying the regurgitation were the intensity of the acoustic signal and the spatial extension of intraatrial turbulent flow: all patients with turbulent flow propagating as far as the superior wall of the right atrium or the inferior vena cava had angiographically severe tricuspid regurgitation. A comparison with other paraclinical methods of detecting tricuspid regurgitation showed that pulsed Doppler echocardiography is the most sensitive tool at the clinician's disposal for diagnosing this lesion: the sensitivity of auscultation and phonocardiography was 50 p. 100, jugular pulse tracings 54 p. 100, right heart catheterisation 50 p. 100, and pulsed Doppler echocardiography 93 p. 100. Pulsed Doppler echocardiography may even be superior to angiography which has, until now, been the method of reference for diagnosing tricuspid regurgitation.