Determining leakage through a heart valve

Determining the severity of a leakage through a heart valve is important. There are several parameters that are clinically interesting in this regard: the area of the lesion, the flow or flow rate through the lesion and the geometry of the lesion. These three parameters are not easy to measure. Current practices comprise mainly invasive techniques with catheters or non-invasive ultra- sound techniques. It is desirable to avoid invasive techniques, as they may be uncomfortable for the patient, and also introduce a strong element of risk. The most common way to determine the severity of a mitral regurgitation is to use ultrasound colour flow imaging to investigate the extent of the jet and ultrasound doppler techniques to investigate the speed of the blood in the jet. However this gives no quantitative information on the area or flow rate of the lesion. NTNU researchers have develop ultrasound doppler techniques to estimate the cross sectional area and the flow rate of a regurgitant jet in the vena.
• Quantifies the area and flow rate of the vena contracta area of the jet through the orifice
• Calculates the geometry of the lesion
• Determining the leakage through a heart valve by using ultrasound technology
• Experimental studies
• Torbjørn Hergum, Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging
• Hans Torp, Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging
• Kavli B et al, EMBO. 1996, 15 (13), 3442-3447.
• Otterlei M et al, EMBO J. 2000, 19 (20), 5542-5551.
• Slupphaug G et al, Biochemistry,1995, 34, 128-138.
• Kavli B et al, 2002 Journal of Biological Chemistry, 18; 277 (42), 39926-36.

Type of Offer: Licensing



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