Age-related Prevalence of Valve Regurgitations by Pulsed Doppler Echocardiography and Color-flow Imaging Among Normal Subjects

Our study group included 171 normal subjects with a mean age 41±13 years (range: 15-71) in 68 women and 103 men. There were 45 subjects in age group 15-29 years, 42 in age group 30-39 years, 36 and 24 in the subsequent age groups, 24 subjects 60 years of age or over. Physiological mitral regurgitation was detected in 40.9 % of patients with pulsed Doppler, compared to 43.3 % patients with color-flow imaging (p>0.05). Tricuspid regurgitation was detected in 53.2 % subjects with pulsed Doppler and in 54.9 % of subjects with color-flow (p>0.05). Pulmonary regurgitation was detected in 12.3 % of subjects with pulsed Doppler and in 14 % of subjects with color-flow (p>0.05). Aortic regurgitation was detected in 4.7 % patients both with pulsed Doppler and color-flow imaging. Physiologic valve regurgitation was observed in 35.1 %, 29.3 %, 7 % AND 0.5 % of subjects with respect to 1, 2, 3 and 4 valves, respectively. The number of affected valves increased with age. In was concluded that the prevalence of physiologic valve regurgitation in normal subjects in a selected Turkish population was not significantly different from other populations and that the use of colorflow Doppler echocardiography was more detailed and less time-consuming.