Spontaneous echocardiographic contrast (SpE) associated with mechanical valve (MHV) closure: Evaluation by TEE and an in-vitro comparison between two different mechanical bileaflet and a bioprosthetic valves

Abstract

SpE is a poorly understood phenomenon with recent reports of a variety of bright echoes seen in patients with MHV. The present study was undertaken to review the TEE images of patients with prosthetic mitral valves and to compare and validate the clinical observations with in-vitro investigations. Our goals were to gain a better understanding of whether microbubbles are associated with a specific type of mitral valve prosthesis and to correlate this association with left ventricular function (LVF) and with the dynamics of the transvalvular flow.

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