Objective: The aims of this study were to obtain an coaptation index of mitral valve by quantifying the mitral tenting area at two different phase using Philips Qlab analysis software and to investigate the feasibility of this method.
Methods: Thirteen patients (age, 58±7.5 years; 10 men) with atrial fibrillation were enrolled in this study. All transesophageal real –time 3-dimensional echocardiographic examinations were performed by using ultrasound equipment (iE33, Philips Medical System) with X7-2t probe (frequency: 2-7MHz). The 3-dimensional data were analyzed by using Philips Qlab 7.0 software on the personal workstation. The mitral annulus was manually marked and the mitral valve leaflet was semi-automatically traced in early diastole and in end systole respectively for each subject. The coaptation area was calculated by the mitral tenting area in early diastole subtracting the mitral tenting area in end systole. The coaptation index was calculated by the following formula: ((mitral tenting area in early diastole-mitral tenting area in end systole )/ mitral tenting area in early diastole)×100%.
Results: The mitral coaptation area and coaptation index were obtained successfully for each subject. The mitral coaptation area of the subjects was 291.7±120.0mm2 (ranged from 119.8 mm2 to 514.5mm2 ) and the coaptation index was 22.4 ± 8.8% (ranged from 16% to 42%).
Conclusions: The coaptation index of mitral valve can be obtained from real-time 3-dimensional imaging by using Philips Qlab analysis software and the method is feasible.