[Doppler ultrasound and aortic regurgitation. Evaluation of the sensitivity and specificity of Doppler findings]. / Echo-Doppler artériel et insuffisance valvulaire aortique. Etude de la sensibilité et de la spécificité des signes.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of arterial Doppler findings of aortic regurgitation to assess if the amplitude of changes of Doppler tracings can accurately quantify the degree of regurgitation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analysed and compared the arterial Doppler tracings and echocardiograms of 250 patients. RESULTS: Even if the obvious pitfall of vascular stenoses is avoided, the global sensitivity of arterial Doppler findings for aortic regurgitation remains weak (30%). However, our study demonstrates that it can reach 100% if only significant AR (> or =2/4) is taken into account. Since the clear false-positive cases have been carefully excluded from the very start, the specificity of the classical criteria already proves excellent (above 95%). It will reach perfection if additional simple criteria gathered from the data mentioned in this study are considered. Quantifying precisely the degree of aortic regurgitation on the basis of arterial Doppler tracings is impossible. Nevertheless, we show that it is easy to identify significant AR (> or =2/4) that should be further assessed with echocardiography. CONCLUSION: Arterial Doppler sonography is unable to detect all cases of aortic regurgitation but those that are overlooked are not significant (1/4). If AR signs happen to be detected by arterial Doppler, the amplitude of the leak cannot be accurately determined based on tracing analysis. Yet, simple criteria will indicate whether it is important enough (> or =2/4) to require complementary echocardiogram, with well documented accuracy for morphological and hemodynamic evaluation.