This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Jugdutt, B. I. Articles by McFarlane, D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Jugdutt, B. I. Articles by McFarlane, D.

Circulation, Vol 58, 861-871, Copyright © 1978 by American Heart Association

ARTICLES

Noninvasive assessment of left ventricular function from the mitral valve echogram. Relation of final anterior mitral leaflet closing velocity to peak dp/dt and aortic velocity

BI Jugdutt, SJ Lee and D McFarlane

Since final mitral valve (MV) closure and aortic ejection velocity are mediated by the same forces in early left ventricular (LV) contraction, the rate of final MV closure (BC slope) should reflect LV performance. We first verified whether peak final closing velocity (ds/dt) of the anterior MV leaflet (AMVL) is related to peak aortic ejection velocity (V) and LV dp/dt in 18 open-chest dogs. We then checked the validity of the relations in man. Our approach was to measure peak ds/dt, peak aortic acceleration (dV/dt) and peak LV dp/dt using electronic differentiation of analog signals of the AMVL echogram, V and LV pressure. In dogs, resting ds/dt averaged 26.9 +/- 9.0 (SD) cm/sec and changed significantly (P less than 0.001) after isoproterenol, propranolol, coronary ligation and aortic cross-clamping. We found good (P less than 0.001) correlations between ds/dt and V (r = 0.82), dV/dt ( r = 0.67) and dp/dt (r = 0.73). In man, resting ds/dt averaged 25.5 +/- 1.6 cm/sec in six normals. In 40 patients with coronary artery disease, restind ds/dt was lower (15.7 +/- 4.4 cm/sec; P less than 0.001) in the 19 with resting LV end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) greater than 12 mm Hg. Resting ds/dt correlated closely with V (r = 0.82, N = 10), dp/dt (r = 0.93, N = 6), resting LVEDP (r = -0.67, N = 40), angiographic ejection fractions (r = 0.62, N = 40) as well as manually obtained BC slopes (r = 0.93, N = 40). Thus, final MV closing velocity provides a useful and simple means for the objective noninvasive assessment of LV performance.