Regurgitant blood flow can be:
- Low or high velocity
- Laminar or turbulent
You may or may not see aliasing in regurgitant flow jet. Any view that shows both the valve and the chamber proximal to it can help you detect regurgitation. Although CFI can help you detect valvular regurgitation, its accuracy in estimating the severity of regurgitation is still an area of discussion. While many sources apply the PW Doppler grading system (judging the extension of the regurgitant jet into the receiving chamber) to CFI, they caution that many morphological, physiological, and technical factors influence the size of the jet seen.
Actual regurgitant volume may be larger or smaller than it appears on the CFI image due to:
- Cardiac output
- The regurgitant jet driving pressure
- The size of the regurgitant orifice
- Gain settings
To obtain the best estimate of size, it is critical to image a regurgitant jet in several different views. The width and length of a jet may vary considerably from one view to the next as it moves in and out of the imaging planes. In addition, color M-mode can help evaluate a regurgitant flow jet by providing precise timing information.
