Echocardiographic assessment of mitral valve calcification.

Abstract

The mitral valve was assessed by echocardiography in 20 patients, aged 27 to 67 years, who subsequently underwent mitral valve replacement. After removal, the mitral valve cusps were examined by direct measurement, radiography, and quantitative calcium extraction. Increased thickness of the E-F echo was found where calcification or fibrosis was present, differentiation by echocardiography alone being unreliable. However, multiple dense parallel E-F echoes were found in all 10 patients with more than 80 milligrammes of calcium in the valve, while a single thin E-F echo indicated the absence of significant calcification or fibrosis. This study was undertaken primarily to test the middle of its free edge. The degree of any fibrosis clinical impression that dense E-F echoes denote present was scored 1 to 3. calcification of the mitral leaflets. The basis of the The valve was then placed in calcium-free fixative study was the comparison of preoperative echo-and suspended in a known volume of Custer's decalcicardiographic measurements with the operative fying fluid for 72 to 96 hours. The amount of calcium findings and with the pathological findings in the extracted was estimated by fluorimetry. inndigs and with the pathological findigs i the Correlation between the in vivo and in vitro data was removed valves, but correlation with the fluoro-sought, using standard statistical methods. scopic appearances was also sought.

Cardiac calcium score on 2D echo: correlations with cardiac and coronary calcium at multi-detector computed tomography

“…Cardiac calcifications have been historically recognized since the early days of ultrasound imaging [ 20 ], but only recently the correlation between cardiac non-coronary calcium measured either by echocardiography or CCTA was investigated, in a small group of 41 subjects [ 21 ]. While CCTA remains the reference method to quantify coronary and non-coronary cardiac calcium, the use of echocardiography for this purpose, if validated against CCTA, would portend inherent advantages of low-cost, portability and radiation safety, becoming a potentially simple adjunct to clinical scores for individualized risk prediction.…”

Echocardiographic pattern of posterior mitral valve leaflet movement after mitral valve repair.

“…A controversy therefore exists in the use of analysis of the pattern of movement of the posterior leaflet, and this is partly because the underlying mechanism is unexplained. One of the problems in defining the mechanism stems from the unreliability of echocardiography in assessing the thickness of mitral leaflets (Raj et al, 1976). An estimate of thickening of the posterior leaflet, with resulting impairment of mobility, forms an essential part in any study to explain the pattern of leaflet movement.…”

Echocardiography in mitral valve disease: A review

“…Thickening and calcification of the leaflets usually begins at the free margins and spreads upwards toward the annulus, unlike that seen in mitral annular calcification [16]. The corresponding echocardiographic features may include a thickened leaflet structure, decreased leaflet excursion, (6, 10) a reduction of the EF slope, decreased or absent A wave and anterior motion of the posterior mitral leaflet during diastole (5,11,14,15) (Fig. 1).…”