Echocardiographic changes after aortic valve replacement: Does the failure rate of mitral valve change?

Background: since some degrees of functional mitral regurgitation (mr) may be seen inpatients who are candidate for undergoing isolated aortic valve replacement (avr), determiningthe effectiveness of avr surgery on mr rate improvement can be effective in designing aprotocol to deal with patients with functional mr. the purpose of this study was to examine theechocardiographic changes after avr surgery with a focus on changes in mr.methods: the research was conducted as a before-after observational study on patientshospitalized in baqiyatallah hospital, tehran, iran, who were undergone avr surgery between2011 and 2012. after selecting the patients and obtaining informed consent to participate in theproject, transthoracic echocardiographic data were collected by a specialist in cardiologyechocardiography using vivid 7 device before and till one week after avr surgery. the mr ratewas measured using methods; including color flow doppler, pisa, vena cava width andeffective regurgitant orifice.results: finally, the study was conducted on 85 patients (mean age = 56.23 ± 6.10 years, 27women = 31.8%). of 21 patients with preoperative mr more than mild (moderate, mild tomoderate), 20 patients (95%) showed at least one degree decrease in mr. among 64 patientswho had mild mr before the surgery, 29 patients improved (45%), that this difference wasstatistically significant (p < 0.001).conclusion: the study results showed that in patients with preoperative mr degree higherthan mild, after avr the mr rate improved 24 times more than those who had preoperative mrdegree equivalent to mild and lower. however, these changes are not affected by otherechocardiographic changes and patients demographic characteristics.