Correlation of pediatric echocardiographic Doppler and catheter-derived valvar aortic stenosis gradients and the influence of aortic regurgitation

Clinical assessment of valvar aortic stenosis (AS) in pediatrics can be misleading. AS gradients at catheterization guide the timing of intervention, but catheterization is unsuitable for serial evaluation. Echocardiographic Doppler evaluation should predict catheter gradients; however, information on its reliability in pediatrics is limited.(1) To evaluate this noninvasive method of predicting AS gradients, Doppler and catheterization data were retrospectively compared. The influence of regurgitation (AR) on the correlation of Doppler and catheter gradients was investigated.