[Real-time cross-sectional echocardiography. Application in the measurement of the surface area of the mitral orifice in cases of stenosis or of double involvement of the valve (author's transl)]. / Echocardiographie bidimensionnelle en temps réel. Application à la mesure de la surface de l'orifice mitral en cas de rétrécissement ou de double atteinte de cette valvule.

Two-dimensional echocardiography in real time has proved in recent years to be a very valuable means of investigation in cardiology, in particular in the area of valve disease and congenital cardiac malformations. The present study concerns a group of 20 patients with essentially stenosing mitral disease, studied by two-dimensional echocardiography using mechanical sector scanner. The authors report their experience of the method in the measurement of the surface area of the mitral orifice from echotomographic sections obtained in protodiastole in a plane perpendicular to the long axis of the left ventricle and passing through the free edge of the mitral cusps. Fifteen of these patients being then treated by valve replacement, the area measured were compared with those found in the operative specimens. In 14 cases out of 15 (93%), despite the concomitant existence of appreciable mitral incompetence in 9 cases out of 15, the surface areas did not differ by more than 0.23 cm2 (coefficient of correlation = 0.990). These results confirmed that two-dimensional echocardiography in real time is a reliable method for the direct measurement of the mitral orifice area in the presence of stenotic type disease of the valve and even in the presence of associated mitral regurgitation.