Quantitative assessment of aortic regurgitation by colour flow Doppler in an open chest canine model

Colour flow Doppler maps the extent of the flow velocity disturbance of aortic regurgitation onto the two dimensional echocardiographic image of the left ventricular cavity. The spatial extent of this flow velocity disturbance expressed as a percentage of end diastolic left ventricular cavity area (CD%) was compared to regurgitant fraction (RF), measured volumetrically, in nine open chest dogs with varying degrees of surgically created aortic regurgitation (RF 0–85%). Right heart bypass controlled venous return to the left atrium and hence net left ventricular output, while total left ventricular output was measured with an aortic electromagnetic flow probe under various loading conditions, achieving mean diastolic transvalvular pressure gradients of 23–114 mm Hg, net left ventricular outputs of 750–3000 ml·min−1 and diastolic filling periods of 162–320 ms. A linear correlation between CD% and RF (r=0.89) was demonstrated over this wide range of loading conditions. At a given transvalvular diastolic pressure gradient [68(SD9) mm Hg] CD% was linearly proportional to regurgitant aortic orifice area (r=0.87). Thus CD% is proportional to the volumetric severity of aortic regurgitation under a wide range of haemodynamic conditions and varies appropriately with regurgitant aortic orifice area when diastolic transvalvular pressure gradient is held constant. The application of these principles to the non-invasive quantitation of valvular regurgitation by colour Doppler appears feasible.