Mechanical Valve Echocardiography

Aortic Valve-Transthoracic Apical Views

The washing jets are seen as two nearly parallel lines in the 5-chamber view (left) and are often larger and directed toward the left ventricular outflow tract in the long axis view (right).

Periprosthetic Leak

In this example, there are two low-momentum pivotal jets and a long, broad periprosthetic jet.

A perivalvular leak: Origin outside edge of sewing ring. Broader base than normal pivotal washing jet. Contains more color aliasing. If significant, may be associated with other signs of significant regurgitation e.g., volume overload of left ventricle, abnormal pulmonary vein flow, dense continuous wave Doppler signal.

Mitral Valve Transesophageal Views

	Normal converging washing jets from pivot points.
	Normal diverging washing jets from same pivot point depending on valve orientation and viewing plane.

Echocardiograhpic Assessment of CarboMedics Aortic and Mitral Valves

Click on the following link to view the video. To view the videos, you must have Windows Media Player installed. The download is free at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp

• Aortic Valve Echo T1  56K
• Mitral Valve Echo T1
  56K

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