[Posterior aortic wall motion in mitral valve disease (author's transl)]

The posterior aortic wall motion was studied in 60 patients, 39 patients with mitral valve disease and 21 normals. The motion of the posterior aortic wall was measured by using the amplitude of the posterior aortic wall motion from the beginning of left ventricular contraction to aortic valve closure and an atrial filling and emptying index. The latter two indices were used, because left atrial volume changes were reflected by the motion of the posterior aortic wall. It could be demonstrated that normals differed in their motion pattern of the posterior aortic wall to those with mitral valve disease. Furthermore, patients with mitral stenosis, mitral insufficiency and mixed mitral valve disease could be differentiated from each other in terms of these indices and an atrial filling-emptying ratio. Thus careful inspection of the posterior aortic wall motion by precordial echocardiography can be used as a parameter of mitral valve function.