Monday, December 27, 2010

Calculating Aortic Regurgitant Fraction

Using the echocardiographically obtained parameters of vena contracta width and abdominal aorta flow VTI’s to estimate the severity of aortic insufficiency.

The recent article An echocardiographic model predicting severity of aortic regurgitation in congenital heart disease presents an interesting model for predicting aortic regurgitation severity. Using MRI as their gold standard, the authors devised a “2 variable” model:

  1. parasternal vena contracta area / BSA
  2. abdominal aorta retrograde flow VTI / antegrade flow VTI

The mathematics-statisitics-voodoo behind developing this model are way beyond me. However, the final model is not too convoluted and it seemed an interesting object for a JavaScript calculator:

AR Fraction Calculator