Isolated Diastolic Tricuspid Regurgitation Demonstrated by Two-Dimensional Color Flow Doppler Imaging

Abstract
Diastolic mitral and tricuspid regurgitation in patients with atrioventricular (AV) block was first described 20 years ago [1], Recent reports have shown that diastolic AV valve regurgitation detected by Doppler echocardiography is present in most patients with heart block of varying degrees [2, 3]. With color-flow Doppler imaging, a real time two-dimensional visualization of intracardiac blood flow is obtained. The display of this information together with a two-dimensional echocardiogram is in effect the equivalent of a noninvasive angiogram. Although the technique is relatively new, it is useful for the detection and semiquantitation of valvular regurgitant lesions [4, 5]. There have been no reports of diastolic AV valve regurgitation demonstrated by color Doppler nor has the presence of isolated tricuspid diastolic regurgitation (without diastolic mitral regurgitation) been described.