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Feasibility of pulmonary valve imaging using transesophageal echocardiography upper esophageal view
Author(s) -
Taskesen Tuncay,
Prabhu Somnath J.,
Steinberg Zachary L.,
Oxorn Donald,
Gill Edward A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
echocardiography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1540-8175
pISSN - 0742-2822
DOI - 10.1111/echo.14332
Subject(s) - medicine , aortic arch , cardiology , image quality , aorta , radiology , image (mathematics) , artificial intelligence , computer science
Background The present study designed to evaluate feasibility of transesophageal echocardiographic ( TEE ) imaging of the pulmonary valve ( PV ) at the transaortic upper esophageal ( TAUE ) window. We hypothesized that patients with larger aorta would be more likely to have visualization of the PV from this TAUE window. Methods 2D TEE images of the PV were prospectively acquired by one operator at the TAUE window looking through the aortic arch. Patients were divided into four groups based on image quality of PV (group 1, not visualized; group 2, barely visualized; group 3, sufficient visualization; group 4, excellent visualization). Clinical, echocardiographic, and radiologic parameters were collected. Results A total of 212 consecutive patients (54 ± 14 years, 63.7% male) were enrolled. Group distribution was as follows: group 1, n = 60 (28.3%); group 2 n = 39 (18.4%); group 3, n = 27 (12.7%); group 4, n = 86 (40.6%). There were no differences between groups’ baseline clinical characteristics. There was a weak although statistically negative correlation between PV image quality and aortic arch dimension ( r = −0.17 P = 0.01). There was a stronger positive correlation between PV thickness ( r = 0.38 P < 0.001) and PV image quality. Retrospective subgroup analysis of 76 patients with recent chest CT showed similar, but not significant trends as by TEE . Conclusion The use of 2D TEE TAUE results in diagnostic image quality of the PV in the majority of patients and outstanding image quality in a subset of patients. PV image quality is negatively affected by increasing aorta diameter and positively affected by PV thickness.