Abstract
An improved perception of the magnitude and dynamics of intracardiac flow disturbances
has been made possible by the advent of 3-dimensional (3-D) color Doppler, a new diagnostic
procedure developed at our institution. This study describes the new insights derived
from 3-D reconstruction of color Doppler flow patterns in patients with different
heart valve diseases. The color Doppler flow data from 153 multiplanar transesophageal
or transthoracic echocardiographic examinations has been obtained from 133 patients
with heart valve disease; 73 patients had mitral regurgitation, 15 had mitral stenosis,
18 had aortic regurgitation, 26 had aortic stenosis, and 21 patients had tricuspid
regurgitation. Four patients had pulmonary regurgitation associated with mitral valve
disease. The 3-D reconstructions of color Doppler flow signals were accomplished by
means of the “Heidelberg Raytracing model,” developed at our institution. The 3-D
color Doppler reconstructions were obtained in all patients. The 3-D images revealed
for the first time the complex spatial distribution of the blood flow abnormalities
in the heart chambers caused by different heart valve diseases. New patterns of intracardiac
blood flow disturbances were observed and classified. Three-dimensional color Doppler
provides a unique noninvasive method that can be easily applied for studying intracardiac
blood flow disturbances in clinical practice.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to American Journal of CardiologyAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Left retrograde cardioangiography in acquired cardiac disease.Am J Cardiol. 1964; 14: 432-442
- Color digital echo/Doppler image presentation.Ultrasound Med Biol. 1981; 7: 21-31
- Real-time two dimensional echocardiographic flow mapping.Circulation. 1985; 71: 849-853
- Color Doppler assessment of mitral regurgitation with orthogonal planes.Circulation. 1987; 75: 175-183
- Semiquantitative grading of severity of mitral regurgitation by real-time two-dimensional Doppler flow imaging technique.J Am Coll Cardiol. 1986; 7: 82-88
- Three-Dimensional Color Doppler. An Atlas of Intracardiac Flow Imaging. Futura Publishing Company, Armonk, NY1999
- Three-dimensional color Doppler. A clinical study in patients with mitral regurgitation.J Am Coll Cardiol. 1999; 33: 1646-1654
- Multiplane transthoracic echocardiography.Echocardiography. 1997; 14: 559-577
- Initial experience with a multiplane transoesophageal echo-transducer.Eur Heart J. 1992; 13: 1201-1206
- The Heidelberg Raytracing Model.IEEE—Comput Graph Applicat. 1991; 6: 34-43
- Three-dimensional presentation of cardiac morphology.Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 1991; 39: 198-204
- Clinical application of transthoracic volume-rendered three-dimensional echocardiography in the assessment of mitral regurgitation.Am J Cardiol. 1998; 82: 189-196
- Dynamic three-dimensional echocardiographic assessment of intracardiac blood flow jets.Am J Cardiol. 1995; 76: 1053-1058
- Three-dimensional reconstruction of color Doppler jets in the human heart.J Am Soc Ecocardiogr. 1994; 7: 553-560
- Three-dimensional flow images by reconstruction from two-dimensional vector velocity maps.J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 1995; 8: 915-923
Article info
Footnotes
☆This work was supported by the German National Foundation for Scientific Research (Sonderforschungsbereich 414, Teilprojekt H1), Heidelberg, Germany. Manuscript received April 3, 2000; revised manuscript received and accepted June 22, 2000.
Identification
Copyright
© 2000 Excerpta Medica Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
