Transesophageal echocardiographic acquisition of mitral annulus motion during monitoring of left ventricular function in anesthetized patients.

We investigated the feasibility and reproducibility of transesophageal (TE) recordings of displacements and velocities of 4 sites of the mitral annulus in anesthetized patients. Correlations to transthoracic measures and influence of the respiratory cycle were also investigated.A total of 24 patients without heart disease were included. Another 10 patients were enrolled for the reproducibility study. Systolic and diastolic velocities and amplitude of motion were extracted from color-coded Doppler tissue recordings.The reproducibility was not acceptable for the anterior site or for late diastolic velocities. Transthoracic values were higher than TE values. A somewhat higher displacement during inspiration in spontaneous respiration and during expiration in positive pressure ventilation was seen.The anterior site should be omitted when TE recordings of the mitral annulus are used. TE values are about 15% lower than transthoracic values. There is no need to take the respiratory cycle into account.