[Contribution of echocardiography to the study of stenotic mitral valve diseases in adults].

The "time motion" echocardiographic findings in 133 patients, with stenotic mitral valve defects were compared with the anatomical and haemodynamic findings. The information was derived either by monosound, or after a multiscan survey, selecting the lines in two perpendicular planes. A morphological analysis of VMA has allowed us to define a statistical profile according to the type of valve defect: a single diastolic slope in the pure uncalcified stenoses, 2 slopes with the first being more rapid than the second, in other mitral conditions. The cinetics of VMP were related to the presence of associated regurgitation and to the type of fusion. In cases with multiple diastolic slopes, the degree of stenosis was correlated only with the first slope, whilst the second was fairly closely related to the left ventricular end-diastolic pressure. The degree of valvular involvement can be predicted on the coexistence of a thick contour with multiple images, or in their absence on the diminution of amplitude of opening (less than 12 mm) and on the maximum speed of opening (less than 250 mm/s). By contrast, the sub-valvular lesions are underestimated whichever technique is used.