Korean Circ J.  1995 Apr;25(2):469-476. 10.4070/kcj.1995.25.2.469.

Echocardiographic Characteristics of Normally Functioning CarboMedics and St.Jude Medical Mitral Valve

• Koo SH
• Kim SH
• Oh SI
• Kim HS
• Sohn DW
• Oh BH
• Lee MM
• Park YB
• Choi YS
• Seo JD
• Lee YW
• Ahn H
• Chae H
• Kim CH

• KMID: 1894821
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4070/kcj.1995.25.2.469

Abstract

BACKGROUND
CarboMedics and St.Jude Medical bileaflet valves are in widespread use but few noninvasive studies about the two types of valves were performedd. The aim of this study was to assess the characterisics of the normally functioning CarboMedics and St.Jude Medical prosthesis in the mitral position.
METHODS
Patients with normally functioning CarboMedics and St.Jude Medical valve in the mitral position were included. They underwent transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiography 7 to 14days after mitral valve replacement. With the use of color flow Doppler transesophageal echocardiography, we measured the length, width, and area of maximal physiologic regurgitation and by using 2-D transesophageal echocardiography, we measured the opening and closing angles of the bileaflet valves and we tried to elucidate whether spontaneous echo contrast is present in the left atrium.
RESULTS
31 pateints underwent mitral valve replacement with CarboMedics and 10 patients with St.Jude Medical. The length of maximal physiologic regurgitation ranged from 11mm to 44mm in carboMedics mitral valve and from 12mm to 36mm in St.Jude Medical mitral valve. The area ranged from 0.19cm2to 3.48cm2in CarboMedcs and from 0.58cm2to 4.49cm2in CarboMedics and The mean opening and closing angles are 83.2(+/-1.1)degrees, 22.3(+/-1.3)degrees in CarboMedics and 86.5(+/-1.2)degrees 26.2(+/-3.2)degrees in St.Jude Medical. Spontaneous echo contrast was positive in 66% of patients, of whom patioents with atrial fibrillation showed nuch higher revalence of SEC than patients with sinus rhythm.
CONCLUSION
These finding valve will give us a reference valvue for the evaluation of prosthetic valve function in mitral position.

Keyword

CarboMedics; St.Jude Medical; Transthoracic echocardiography(TTE); Transesophageal echocardiography(TEE); Color flow Doppler; Spontaneous echo contrast(SEC)

MeSH Terms

Atrial Fibrillation
Echocardiography*
Echocardiography, Transesophageal
Heart Atria
Humans
Mitral Valve*
Prostheses and Implants