Quantification of left-side intracardiac pressures and gradients using mitral and aortic regurgitant velocities by simultaneous left and right catheterization and continuous-wave Doppler echocardiography

Noninvasive determination of left-side intracardiac pressures is of clinical importance in many cardiac diseases. To test the reliability and accuracy of left-side intracardiac pressure measurements by continuous-wave Doppler echocardiography, using left-side valvular regurgitations, 47 patients with mitral regurgitation, with or without associated aortic regurgitation, underwent simultaneous Doppler and left and right catheterization. Doppler-derived left atrial and ventricular end-diastolic pressures were respectively estimated by subtracting mitral regurgitant gradient from systolic blood pressure and by diastolic blood pressure minus aortic regurgitant gradient. There were high correlations of mitral (r = 0.961) and aortic regurgitant gradients (r = 0.896) and of left atrial (r = 0.945) and ventricular end-diastolic pressures (r = 0.854) between noninvasive and invasive measurements. Also, agreement analyses showed that there was close agreement between the two technical measurements for each parameter. The present study concluded that continuous-wave Doppler echocardiography provides a reliable and accurate method for the noninvasive evaluation of left-side intracardiac pressures and gradients in patients with mitral and aortic regurgitations.