Echocardiographic features of the correctly functioning St. Jude Medical valve prosthesis

The St. Jude Medical valve (SJM) is a new low-profile bileaflet prosthesis with central flow. We investigated 10 patients with aortic valve replacement and 11 with mitral valve replacement by means of combined echocardiography and phonocardiography. In patients with aortic valve replacement, echocardiography revealed during systole the anterior and posterior part of the ring together with both leaflets. During diastole, patients with mitral valve replacement showed part of the anterior leaflet and the entire posterior leaflet together with the posterior ring. Distinctive opening sounds were missing. In aortic prostheses, maximal opening followed S1 0.06 +/- 0.02 second. An amplitude of the posterior leaflet of 9.8 +/- 1.3 mm and a leaflet separation of 4.8 +/- 0.9 mm were measured. In mitral prostheses the maximal opening followed A2 0.10 +/- 0.02 second, the Q-closure interval was 0.07 +/- 0.03 second and leaflet separation was 4.4 +/- 0.8 mm. In both aortic and mitral positions, high values for opening and closing velocities were measured, and closing velocities exceeded opening rates. These findings establish the normal pattern and values in echocardiography and phonocardiography for patients with aortic valve replacement as well as mitral valve replacement with SJM prostheses.