Echocardiography in the preoperative diagnosis of acquired heart valve diseases

With the aim of minimizing the risk and stress of an invasive diagnostics, 102 patients with acquired heart valve diseases were examined by two-dimensional echocardiography combined with pulsed Doppler technique. The results were compared with those obtained at invasive diagnostics in 91 and/or during surgery in 52 of the patients studied. In the group of operated patients the sensitivity of non-invasive diagnostics was 89.5%, specificity 97.2%; analogous data for patients not subjected to surgery were 91.8% and 93.8%, respectively. The results of the study show that in the majority of patients with acquired valvular disease a complete preoperative invasive investigation is not necessary. Only in patients over 50 years of age the intended valve replacement should be preceded by additional coronarographic examination, as in 6.8% of cases--even without kinetic disturbances at rest--a haemodynamically important stenosis was found on at least one coronary artery.