Noninvasive diagnosis of mitral prosthesis malfunction

We describe the utilization of echocardiography and phonocardiography in the diagnosis of malfunction of the Smeloff-Cutter mitral prosthesis in a patient in whom corrective surgery was subsequently performed without the necessity of cardiac catheterization studies. The noninvasive studies also delineated prosthesis malfunction as the etiology of pulsus alternans, noted clinically in this patient.