Non-Invasive Examination Techniques For Determining The Severity Of A Pulmonary Stenosis In Adults

Echocardiography has superseded phonocardiography in the diagnosis of heart valve diseases. The reliability of these two non-invasive methods for determining the severity of a pulmonary stenosis was tested in 35 patients (17 females aged 39 +/- 14 years; 18 males aged 39 +/- 14 years) using a total of 155 invasive comparative measurements before and after successful percutaneous balloon valvulotomy of the pulmonary valve.Continuous Doppler-flow-measurement can only be implemented to determine a transvalvular systolic pressure difference with relative certainty in cases of an unaccompanied pulmonary stenosis. an additionally existing infundibular stenosis renders certain differentiation of transvalvular and infundibular pressure differences impossible. In contrast the split-interval of the second heart sound proves to be positively related to invasive determination of the severity of a pulmonary stenosis.