Regurgitation across an obviously normal valve orifice as a possible prerequisite for non-organic cardiac murmur.

Using pulsed and continuous wave Doppler echocardiography, the author examined 359 subjects referred to ultrasound examination for a variety of reasons. Thorough examination of persons with morphologically unchanged valves revealed regurgitation in the tricuspid, pulmonary, mitral and aortic valves in 49.4%, 20%, 14.5% and 0.8%, respectively. The degree of regurgitation was invariably haemodynamically insignificant. Some patients had a positive finding in several valves at a time. Overall, regurgitation was found in 247 subjects (69%). While it is evident from the study that the finding of regurgitation in normal valves is relatively frequent, evaluation of its clinical importance remains an open question.