Diagnosis of mitral valve diseases using indirect (esophageal) left atrial pulse
Longhini, C.; Portaluppi, F.; Musacci, G.; Toselli, T.
Acta Cardiologica 34(5): 331-344
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-5385 PMID: 317207 Document Number: 149501
The diagnostic usefulness of the indirect (esophageal) left atrial pulse (ESO) was analyzed in 25 patients with mitral insufficiency (MI), 18 patients with mitral stenosis, 29 patients with combined valvular disease and 10 normal subjects. In patients with MI and normal subjects, the ESO was recorded during isometric exercise (handgrip) after inhalation of amyl nitrite and after i.v. infusion of methoxamine. The ESO tracing demonstrated a characteristic behavior in each group of patients and also permitted in MI quantitative estimates of the severity of the disease. Under dynamic conditions no modification from the resting morphology was obtained in the control group, whereas in MI increased, progressive, positive elevation of the systolic phase of the ESO during the handgrip and the administration of the methoxamine and tendency to return to normal morphology after amyl nitrite were observed.