Does jet morphology (impinging wall jet vs free jet) affect the color Doppler area in the echocardiographic assessment of mitral regurgitation?
Jet morphology, specifically impinging wall jets, must be considered during semiquantitative interpretation of mitral regurgitation by Doppler color flow mapping to avoid underestimation of severity.
Patients with mitral regurgitation frequently have jets that impinge on the left atrial wall close to the mitral valve. Such impinging wall jets are less predictable and usually have much smaller color Doppler areas in conventional echocardiographic views than do free jets of similar regurgitant severity. Jet morphology should be considered in the semiquantitative interpretation of mitral regurgitation by Doppler color flow mapping. Future studies of the three-dimensional morphology of wall jets may aid in their assessment.
Chen et al. (1991) studied this question.