Does live/real time three-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography accurately identify the location and severity of mitral valve prolapse compared to surgical findings in patients with severe mitral insufficiency?
Live/real-time 3D transthoracic echocardiography is a useful and accurate non-invasive tool for preoperative assessment of individual segment/scallop prolapse in patients with severe mitral insufficiency.
In this report, we present 34 patients in whom surgical intervention was undertaken for severe mitral insufficiency due to mitral valve prolapse (MVP). Location and severity of MVP and regurgitation were assessed preoperatively by live/real time three-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography and closely agreed with the surgical findings.
Patel et al. (Wed,) studied this question.